Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RED BANK: SCHOOL TAX TO RISE 3.26 PERCENT

rbms-500x375-8622282Facilities are growing tighter as enrollment rises, said Superintendent Jared Rumage. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

The Red Bank Board of Education approved a $22 million budget that would raise the local school portion of property tax bills by 3.26 percent Tuesday night.

Upshot: a $145 increase on the year for the owner of a home assessed at the town-average $362,342, said Superintendent Jared Rumage.

The increase in the levy, to $16.57 million, exceeds the state-mandated two-percent cap under an allowable waiver for increases in health benefits expenses, he said.

The increase was the smallest since Rumage, of Fair Haven, became superintendent almost three years ago, and it was produced amid familiar conditions: rising enrollment and inadequate funding from the state.

“We’re short two dozen teachers and other personnel,” Rumage told redbankgreen prior to the board meeting. Since 2008, as enrollment has risen from 924 students to a projected 1,459 in September, Trenton has withheld more than $6.4 million in required funding, even as other districts with shrinking enrollment have maintained their funding, he said.

A slide presentation on the budget showed that of $3 million received in state aid in the current school year, $1.6 million was transferred to the Red Bank Charter School, a sum that’s expected to drop to $1.55 million in the coming school year, though the figure is subject to change, Rumage said.

Rumage said the enrollment growth has tested the district’s ability to accommodate students.

“To walk around here, you wouldn’t say, ‘wow, there are too many kids in the classrooms.’ But we may have 24 where there should be 20,” he said. “So education is being compromised.”

Still, there are no plan to add facilities, Rumage said.

“It wouldn’t matter if we had more space, because we don’t have the teachers” to staff additional classrooms, he said.

Members of the school community, who have made repeated trips to Trenton in an effort to persuade lawmakers to restore full funding, will travel there again by bus next Tuesday, leaving by bus from the primary school at 7:45 a.m.

“It’s disheartening that everything is political, and we have to go to Trenton to fight to get” funding promised by the state itself, said board member Sue Viscomi.

Several parents, including Lisa McLaughlin and Jill Burden, both members of Fair Schools Red Bank, appealed to the board to use the courts to deal with funding inequity. McLaughlin urged the board to sue the state Department of Education, as Freehold did Tuesday.

“I don’t think now’s the time to hedge,” she said. “We need that money now.”

Burden exhorted the board to join Fair Schools, along with the Latino Coalition of New Jersey and the ACLU of New Jersey, in a federal lawsuit they’re pursuing along with the ACLU of New Jersey to force a closure of the charter school over allegations of segregation.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
Partyline
RED TRUCKS AT RED ROCK
A small dishwasher fire at Red Rock Tap and Grill was put out quickly by firefighters overnight, causing minimal damage. Red Bank Fire Depar ...
CREATIVE COVER UP
The windows of Pearl Street Consignment on Monmouth Street were smashed when a driver crashed their car through them injuring an employee la ...
THEY’RE BACK!
Ospreys returned to the skies over Red Bank this week for the first time since they migrated to warmer climes in late fall. With temperature ...
SPRING IS SPRUNG
RED BANK: Spring 2024 arrives on the Greater Red Bank Green with the vernal equinox at 11:06 p.m. Tuesday.
RED BANK’S FINEST – AND NEWEST
Red Bank Police Officer Eliot Ramos was sworn in as the force’s newest patrolman Thursday, and if you’re doing a double take thinkin ...
EASTER EGG MAYHEM AT THE PARK
An errant whistle spurred an unexpectedly early start to the Spring Egg Hunt on Sunday, which had been scheduled to begin at eggsactly 11am ...
PRESEASON DOCKWORK
RED BANK: With winter winding down, marina gets ready for boating season with some dockwork on our beautiful Navesink River.
CORNED BEEF AND DISCO FRIES?
It’s Friday, and smart Lent-observing Leprechauns know the pot of gold at the end of Red Bank’s rainbow is actually the deliciou ...
SURFBOARD DITCHED
It’s a violation of etiquette in surfing to ditch your board.  (it could hit another surfer and hurt them). But someone appears to ha ...
ELSIE, TAKE ME WITH YOU!
Soaked by pouring rain with the temperature hovering in the low 40’s, this sign in the window of Elsie’s Subs on Monmouth Street ...
WALK THIS WAY
PARTYLINE: Before-and-afters of a sidewalk cleanup on West Street.
SOGGY NOTION
RED BANK: Breezeway sculpture captured the mood downtown as heavy rains fell Saturday morning.
HOME DELIVERY
RED BANK: After a subdivision, an instant house rises on a new Catherine Street lot.
COMMUNITY PROFILES
For Black History Month, Red Bank's Community Engagement and Equity Advisory Committee has been running a series of local profiles on Facebo ...
HEARTY FAREWELL FOR HARDY
RED BANK: Council to honor DPU supervisor Rich Hardy, who retired recently after almost 39 years of keeping things running.
HOMEBOUND? READ ON…
RED BANK: Can't get to the public library? It's now offering free delivery and pickups for homebound borough residents.
TAMING A BEAST OF A WEEK
RED BANK: After the second snowfall of the week, a borough family finds the perfect use for it – a Godzilla snow sculpture.
RED BANK: LIBRARY CLOSED, BUT THE HILL’S OPEN
RED BANK: Though the library was closed by a snowstorm, kids got to enjoy the riverfront property's steep slope Tuesday.
LIGHT(HOUSE) MAKEOVER
This year, getting ready for spring means a midwinter makeover for Strollo's Lighthouse in Red Bank.
TODAY: LOCAL PUPPY COMPETES ON ANIMAL PLANET’S “PUPPY BOWL”
Red Bank’s very own rescue puppy, Biscuit, is set to compete in Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl this Sunday, February 11, at 2 PM. Th ...