Property Sale in the Works for Toms River School District

To close a $12.4 million budget deficit and guarantee that employees can be paid through June, the Toms River Regional Schools are selling real estate.

Officials from the Toms River Regional School District expect to announce the sale of district property by the end of January in order to fill a $12.4 million budget deficit.

During the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday night, Superintendent Michael Citta explained that the district has "multiple things in process" when asked about the state of the property sales.

Citta informed Krista Whittaker, a resident of South Toms River and the parent of a district student, that "it should come to a conclusion by the end of this month." "It's currently in the middle of negotiations, but there will be an announcement of some kind that should complete those transactions."

In what was supposed to be the last year of the S2 state aid cuts, the state Department of Education refused to give Toms River Regional any additional funding, forcing the district to sell off property to fill the void in the 2024–25 budget.

Last June, state lawmakers passed a bill that permits districts with significant revenue-to-expenditure gaps and underadequacy to raise their property tax levy by 9.9 percent.

The Toms River Regional board rejected the final budget in early July because the state refused to provide the $12.4 million that was required to close the gap, and they agreed to approve that increase only if the state provided that amount.

The board's refusal to approve the final budget forced the district to sell properties, and in July, state education officials enacted the tentative budget for Toms River schools.

In May 2024, Citta stated that Toms River Regional would not have sufficient funds to pay its employees after April unless it received a wave of cash from the sale of the properties.

In October, Toms River Regional filed a lawsuit against the state over the aid cuts, describing the effects of the S2 cuts and the state's 2 percent cap on property tax levy increases, which have resulted in a structural deficit in its budget.

The district's transportation facility on Route 37, where its mechanics work and school buses are stored at night, the administrative offices at 1144 Hooper Ave., the maintenance yard at 123 Walnut St., and the parcels of land adjacent to >Joseph A. Citta Elementary, Toms River High School East, and East Dover Elementary are among the properties that could be sold.

The district is currently suing the state in part because those asset sales are one-time revenue injections that would leave the district in the red at the beginning of the next budget cycle.

According to the education department's local fair share calculations, Toms River Regional may see another cut in aid, even though S2 was meant to expire with the 2024–25 budget year.

However, state lawmakers have not attempted to make any changes.

One of S2's provisions required the state to examine how the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 was being implemented.

This act was intended to guarantee that all districts had "the essential resources needed" to give students a comprehensive and effective education, as required by the New Jersey constitution.

As originally proposed, S2 was intended to do away with the adjustment aid that districts received when the state implemented the School Funding Reform Act of 2008. Toms River Regional's adjustment aid reduction, according to figures released in 2017 by the state Office of Legislative Services, was supposed to be $18,572,932.

That total cut in aid over a seven-year period would have been roughly $130 million.

According to the lawsuit, Toms River has seen a reduction in aid of over $40 million during the seven years of S2, from $68.3 million in 2017–18 to $28.1 million in 2024–25.

Early debates about the S2 aid cuts focused on a drop in student enrollment, but Toms River Regional's lawsuit points out that the district has witnessed a sharp rise in the number of students who require additional classroom support, including the academic and medical assistance mandated by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.