Report Recommends Closing West Cape May School

CAPE MAY – A report prepared by Richard C. Perniciaro, director of the Center for Regional and Business Research at Atlantic Cape Community College recommends closing West Cape May Elementary School and sending the students to Cape May Elementary School.
West Cape May would become a sending district rather than form a regional district, as was done with the middle school and high school, which has produced a tax assessment based on home value rather student enrollment.
Perniciaro presented his report to a joint meeting of the boards of education of West Cape May, Cape May and Cape May, Mon., Nov. 29. The report notes the local population of families with children is projected to continue to decline due to unaffordable housing and a lack of jobs. Educating all students from West Cape May, Cape May Point and Cape May in one building is projected to save about $700,000 per year.
For the taxpayer in Cape May that translates to a drop of one penny on the school tax rate in Cape May or about $33 per year on a home assessed at $300,000.
In West Cape May, the school tax rate would drop 5.4 cents representing a savings of about $162 per year on a home assessed at $300,000.
Cape May Point would see an increase in the school tax rate from just under one penny to 2.2 cents representing an annual increase of $88 for a home assessed at $400,000. Cape May Point has only three students.
Cape May Elementary School Board of Education President Edward Connolly said no action would be taken at the meeting other than accepting the report.
One item that could affect savings is an outstanding bond the West Cape May Board of Education issued in 1997 of $550,000 to build an addition on the school. Perniciaro said that amounts to a yearly payment of $75,000 for West Cape May Board of Education.
West Cape May Elementary School is the property of the school district and could be sold to pay off the bond. County Executive School Superintendent Terrence Crowley said the bond could continue if it is deeded to another governmental entity.
Perniciaro said 2009 enrollment figures showed 34 students in West Cape May Elementary School and 157 students in Cape May Elementary School. The report did not include tuition students that attend West Cape May school which brings their total to 42 students.
Grand total for both schools was 191 students which Perniciaro said would comfortably fit inside Cape May Elementary School which at one time housed 300 students. Over the past five years, total enrollment for both schools has stayed in the range of 187 to 191 students.
He said Cape May and the county are losing population with Cape May, West Cape May and Cape May Point losing population at a greater rate than the county. He said the birth rate here is also declining.
The Coast Guard base has kept the school population from a greater decline, said Perniciaro. The report projects two additional teachers needed in Cape May if the two schools consolidate.
Cost savings would result from operating only one building with less staff such as one librarian, one school nurse and less administrative staff, he said. Federal aid for Coast Guard and public housing students would not be impacted.
The operating budgets for the three schools districts in 2009 totaled $4.2 million. Combining the three school districts would produce a total budget of $3.5 million, a savings of $700,000, said Perniciaro.
Combining the three districts would create a cost of educating each student of $15,815 per year. Current cost per pupil is $16,468 in Cape May and $29,740 in West Cape May. He said the state average is about $14,000 per student.
During public comment, Page Callabro, a West Cape May resident and teacher at West Cape May Elementary School, said the West Cape May school was “special and an excellent ,” and she did not want to see the school “go away.”
Callabro said teachers in both schools had union contracts which were a “huge issue.” Perniciaro said some teachers would lose their jobs if the two school schools consolidated. He said state statutes govern how the schools would be combined as well as teacher seniority and salaries.
West Cape May Board of Education member Lynn Bowlby said the Cape May school offered a more generous benefits package to its teachers. She said she realized West Cape May Elementary School’s enrollment of 35 students seemed very low but the school district has average about 50 students throughout its 150-year history.
“Traditionally it’s been a neighborhood, rural, farming school that had about 50 kids,” said Bowlby. “We’ve educated eight generations of West Cape May farming families.
The consolidation would need to be approved by the three school boards and state Commissioner of Education.