The hallways in Asbury Park are buzzing: Today all 350 staff members employed by the district received Rice notices, named after the 1977 case of Rice v. Union County Regional High School Board of Education. This is a notification that at the next Board meeting on May 8th, school board members and Superintendent Rashawn Adams may discuss if and how many staff members will be laid off. The law also gives staff members the option to have their employment status discussed publicly. If that’s their preference, they must submit a waiver to the Business Administrator by next Thursday.

Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2023-2024 school allocations cut Asbury Park’s budget by $8.6 million (although a last-minute legislative move recouped $3 million.) The district has a long history of being overfunded, even after the passage of the 2008 School Funding Reform Act, because a budget line called “Adjustment Aid”  protected overfunded schools from aid cuts. The 2018 law called S2 requires the state, over a six year period, to phase out that line item in order to provide more aid to underfunded districts, which has left districts like Asbury Park in a budget crunch. Currently cost per pupil in Asbury Park is about $31K—well down from its peak of $42K per student but still too high.

Here is the Rice notice received today:

Asbury Park Board of Education 

Dr. RaShawn M. Adams, Superintendent 

Geoffrey Hastings, Business Administrator/Board Secretary 

April 27, 2023 

VIA CERTIFIED & REGULAR MAIL 

Re: Rice Notice 

Dear Employee, 

This letter is to inform you that the Asbury Park Board of Education may discuss and/or act upon a matter involving your employment at the next regularly scheduled board meeting, May 8, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. at the Bradley Elementary School, 1100 Third Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ 07712. 

The Board intends to discuss matters pertaining to your employment, specifically status of employment, in closed executive session during the above-referenced Board meeting; however, pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act, N.J.S.A. 10:4-12(b)(8), and Rice v. Union County Regional High School Board of Education, 155 N.J. Super. 64 (App.Div.1977), cert. denied, 76 N.J. 238 (1978), you have the right to request that the Board discuss the matters pertaining to your employment during the public portion of the aforementioned meeting. 

Should you wish to have the Board discuss your employment during the public portion of the meeting, your waiver must be submitted in writing, addressed to Geoffrey Hastings, School Business Administrator/Board Secretary, and received on or before 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 4, 2023. The waiver should be emailed to HastingsG@asburypark.k12.nj.us. Kindly note that any formal Board action regarding your employment must take place during the public session of the aforementioned Board meeting. 

Please contact me should you have any questions regarding this letter. 

Sincerely

Dr. RaShawn M. Adams

cc: Personnel File