TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regional Board of Education will host its Citizens Budget Advisory Committee meeting Thursday evening, giving families and residents a look at the 2023-24 school year budget.
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The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the media center at Toms River High School North, 1245 Old Freehold Road. The media center is on the north end of the high school, off Bay Avenue.
The public is encouraged to attend in person, and public comment will be held at the end of the presentation, after questions and comments from the board. Those unable to attend can view the presentation via live stream on the district’s YouTube channel.
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The presentation will be the first in-depth look at the budget and how it is affected by the state aid cut announced by the Department of Education in Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2023-24 state budget.
The Toms River Regional Schools initially were supposed see a $14.4 million cut in state aid, the highest percentage for districts receiving $10 million or more in aid. That number has been reduced to $4.9 million under Senate Bill S3732, an agreement struck to restore 66 percent of the proposed cuts to the more than 150 districts that were set for significant cuts.
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That $4.9 million cut is still nearly double the amount Toms River Regional district officials had been anticipating for 2023-24.
Superintendent Michael Citta has said the district is faced with a fiscal apocalypse and in the school board’s March 8 committee meeting said the $14.4 million cut would have forced the district to cut more than 200 teaching positions. Toms River has already cut 186 positions, including 142 teaching positions, in the first five years of the state aid cuts under S2, and 90 positions are funded through federal COVID relief funds that run out in 2024.
“There isn’t any fat left to trim,” Citta said at the time, adding that further cuts “will move us out of T and E,” referring to the state constitutional requirement for public schools to provide a thorough and efficient education.
“We will not be doing that in this budget process. We will not cut programs for kids,” Citta said.
The Citizens Budget Advisory Meeting agenda can be found here.
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