A few weeks ago NJ Education Report covered the latest at Asbury Park Public Schools, specifically some staff members’ belief that recent actions, under the leadership of Superintendent Mark Gerbino, are deja vu all over again, with empty promises to address the historically top-heavy administration while students and teachers get left behind.

Asbury Park School Board President Tracy Rogers, elected to the board two years ago, begs to differ. In response to these allegations he agreed to an interview with NJ Education Report to explain how the district is, in fact, cutting back on unnecessary costs and re–focusing its efforts on student outcomes, which he regards as an imperative.

“My kids should get the same education as a kid in Livingston,” he says, but, beginning with the administration of former Superintendent Lamont Repollet (whom Gov. Phil Murphy later chose as his first Education Commissioner), “there was no oversight or accountability for the district.” One result is, according to last spring’s standardized test scores, 9% of fourth graders read on grade level and 7.6% can do math, despite one of the highest costs per pupil in the state.

Rogers, along with the majority of the school board, is determined to change that. In fact, he says, change has already begun.

Fiscally it has to. In the past the school board has refused to raise local taxes, counting on the state to fund 90% of school costs even after passage of the 2008 school funding law that required municipalities to pay their “Local Fair Share,” including Abbott/SDA districts. (See here for more from stateaidguy.) But that law also included a hold-harmless clause called Adjustment Aid, that with the passage of a 2018 law called S2, was phased out. This is why many towns, especially in South Jersey, are stuck with budget deficits like Asbury Park’s $13 million hole. 

In addition, Rogers believes, his town is a victim of an excess of PILOT agreements (deals towns strike with developers called “Payment-In-Lieu-of Taxes”) intended for impoverished areas that have trouble wooing investors. But one consequence is lack of additional payments to schools. Thomas Sano says, “Over the last 20 years, Asbury has been giving these perks to gazillion dollar developers at the beachfront, and that has caused our growing school funding shortfall and rising taxes for everyone else.” (In 2020 Stateaidguy pointed to “a penthouse in Asbury Park [that] recently sold for $5 million.” Also see Evan Scott, who says PILOTs “allow developers to make direct payments to municipalities instead of paying property taxes that would otherwise contribute to school funding.”)

Therefore, explains Rogers, Asbury Park district has begun the process of reforming its oversight of finances. At the May 7th school board budget hearing, after much discussion, the Board voted 5-4 to raise local tax revenue by almost $10 million, with the state throwing in a one-time incentive (“Tax Levy Incentive Aid”) of about $486K.  Now Asbury Park is meeting its Local Fair Share (compared to Jackson, way below Local Fair Share with a .87% tax rate, which is suing the state for not giving it more aid and refusing to raise adequate revenue from local property taxes. To be fair, the state funding formula doesn’t work well for South Jersey and rural districts.)

And, says Rogers, the district has significantly reduced both the number of administrators and their associated payroll. Balancing out additional administrative hires and administrative cuts, he calculates this year the district is saving $1.4 million. The board also welcomed a grant, courtesy of Senator Vin Gopal, of $1.8 million; further savings come from an Extraordinary Aid grant of $1.64 million for students with disabilities.

More importantly, he says, this new school board is laser-focused on student outcomes. 

Let’s get into the way-back machine for a moment.

In 2016 then-Superintendent Repollet inaugurated a scheme called the 64 Floor that barred teachers from giving out failing grades, artificially inflating the graduation rate.  Multiple platforms have reported how he started hiring far more administrators than appropriate for staff and student populations, which drove up costs without benefit to students and families. In 2020 the cost per pupil per year was $42K. By 2023 the district proportionately had twice as many administrators as the average NJ district and more money per student than any other district while student proficiency levels placed the district 425th out of 425 districts in math and 436th out of 436 for reading. The state Department of Education demanded an audit, which found “a continued decline in enrollment, excess capacity across schools, and the potential for improving staff efficiencies through scheduling enhancements.” (Deeper dive here.)

To add to the problems, student enrollment is shrinking as parents vote with their feet. (New Jersey as a whole is expected to see an 8% drop in K-12 enrollment over the next decade.) Currently the district has about 1,400 students K-12, the size of some high schools, and the graduation rate has dropped to 73%. In this rapidly-gentrifying beachfront town the average home sells for $875,000; the people who live there are probably sending their kids elsewhere.

So what is the new school board and new superintendent doing to reverse these trends? How will the students of Asbury Park benefit?

Rogers points to the district’s “new focus on early literacy” and says recent interim testing shows promising student growth. Principals and supervisors, once sequestered in the “Taj Mahal” (what people called the remote Central Office) are back with students and have reorganized the school buildings to make instruction more effective. There is a new program for students with behavioral disabilities. And the halls are safer, he says, with no reports of incidents like football games cancelled due to threats of violence, eighth graders punching a guidance counselor, and a high school student bringing a gun to school.

Rogers was in a kindergarten classroom recently where he reports, “students are starting to read!” He is confident that change is coming. Asbury Park families will wait and see.