NJ Expects To Significantly Cuts Aid To Eatontown Schools

Eatontown Public Schools are expected to receive a significant reduction in state aid, according to numbers Gov. Phil Murphy's administration released last week. Eatontown schools will lose up to $2.3 million in state funding through 2025, school officials said.

Boro schools will receive $3,361,196 from the state for the 2019-20 school year, a 7.84 percent decrease and loss of $286,040 from this year. Superintendent Scott T. McCue and Board of Education President Bob English hope the state reconsiders its funding.

"We (McCue and the Board) really want to make sure that all students across the state, no matter where you live or whether you're overfunded or underfunded, that everybody gets a fair shake out of education in New Jersey at the end of the day," McCue told Patch.

However, due to the size of Eatontown's district, the state budget cuts for Eatontown can have major effects on the district. According to S-2, New Jersey's law governing school funding, Eatontown schools face the following approximate reductions:

• 2019-2020- 13% ($298,423)
• 2020-2021- 23% ($459,342)
• 2021-2022- 37% ($568,984)
• 2022-2023- 55% ($532,846)
• 2023-2024- 76% ($331,333)
• 2024-2025- 100% ($104,632)

Eatontown schools also lost $250,000 in state aid for this school year, officials said. McCue said administration would decide on a future date what the district will need to change with the new budget.

"Our chief concern continues to be the reduction of Adjustment Aid without any consideration of other portions of the school funding formula that may be due to Eatontown based upon our rapidly changing district," McCue and English said in a statement Friday. "The Board of Education and I recognize that student enrollment has decreased. The BOE and I also recognize that some other districts need more funding as well. However, fixing one complex problem by creating another does not sound like fair and targeted investment."

Their statement listed the following statistics about Eatontown student enrollment:

• the Free and Reduced Lunch percentage is 43.
• The special education population is about 23 percent.
• The English Language Learners population is about 8 percent.
• Eatontown provides services to about 42 homeless students.

"When you take it as a certain percentage of the budget, (the district's) $286,000 lost hurts just as much as a $2 or 3 or 4 million hit from a Toms River or some of the bigger schools," McCue told Patch.

According to New Jersey figures, 190 school districts will lose some state funding next year. Percentage-wise, Eatontown will suffer the 41st-biggest loss of the state's 578 school districts.

Read more: These 190-Plus Districts May Face Tax Hike: NJ School Aid Figures

"What we've now created is a list of 190 districts across the state, that when this S-2 is completely enacted by the end of the next six years, these districts will not have enough money to provide a quality education to their students," McCue said. "Hence, the pendulum swings again and we're right back to the same circle again six years from now."