CAPE MAY — The cost to send each student from Cape May to the Lower Cape May Regional School District is $70,000 which has caused Deputy Mayor Jack Wichterman to send a letter to Gov. Chris Christie.
Cape May’s regional school tax is based solely on property values.
At a Tue., March 20 City Council meeting, Wichterman said he would meet with the Deputy Chief of State and the acting state Commissioner of Education in Trenton on March 30.
He said he was hoping to “bring this great disparity to them and get some help.”
“We want to pay our fair share but we feel that $70,000 or $72,000 per pupil is out of the realm of fair share,” said Wichterman.
He said council would see what it could do to bring some tax relief to Cape May.
During public comment, Pete Iurato, speaking on behalf of the Taxpayers Association of Cape May, said about seven years ago, the towns of Haledon, North Haledon and Prospect Park tried to pull out of a regional school agreement. He said they were not successful in leaving the district because it would create a racial imbalance of students.
Iurato said a judge told the Commissioner of Education to “straighten out the inequities in tuition costs for all regional districts in the state.”
“To date, I’m sure you have not received any information on that,” he said.
Iurato said regional school funding formulas could be changed by the state legislature.
“We know they’re not going to touch it because there’s more voters in Lower Township than there are in Cape May or West Cape May,” he said. “So we have to go and put the commissioner’s feet to the fire and tell him ‘What have you done about the judge’s ruling.’”
Taxpayer’s Association of Cape May President Kate Wyatt sent a letter to the Commissioner of Education.
City Solicitor Tony Monzo said he believed the case Iurato was referring to involved a municipality that was forced to join a regional school district to resolve a segregation issue.
Monzo said the legislation allows the Commissioner of Education to modify the apportioned formula in that situation where you have municipalities that voluntarily join or form a regional school district.
Monzo said the commissioner cannot change the regional school funding formula, it must be done by the regional school district board of education or through a voter referendum.
Iurato said the Lower Cape May School District Board of Education has the ability to change the funding formula.
Talk of Cape May withdrawing from the regional school district dates back more than a decade.
In 2005, Cape May hired attorney Vito Gagliardi as a consultant. He helped North Haledon in its quest to withdraw from the Manchester Regional School District.
Gagliardi recommended Cape May take steps necessary to bring about a voter referendum to ask residents of this city, West Cape May and Lower Township to dissolve the Lower Cape May Regional School District.
At that time, he said it would provide a large, school tax break for Cape May, a savings of as much as $2.9 million per year. In 2005, Cape May was paying $4.7 million to educate 115 children at regional.
West Cape May would have saved $325,000 year while it would cost Lower Township an additional $1.9 million per year, according to CPA James Kirkland, who was part of Gagliardi’s team. He said Lower Township would receive an additional $900,000 in state aid if the school district were dissolved.
In 2005, Cape May was paying $42,000 to send each student to the regional district. At that time if the district was dissolved, students would still have attended the high school and middle school but on a sending district basis at a cost of only $8,000 per student.
In 1993, state laws changed allowing a regional school to be funded on a per pupil basis or equalized property value or a combination of the two, as long as the issue is submitted for a public referendum vote and approved in each one of the towns participating in the regional school, Gagliardi said.
Referendums have been attempted throughout the state but none have passed.
If the regional school district were dissolved, the high school and middle school would be run by Lower Township Elementary School District which would become a K-12 district.
Gagliardi recommended giving Lower Township possession of the high school and middle school buildings and ground. The three towns currently hold group ownership.
He said Cape May and West Cape May should forfeit $3.5 million in school assets they own if the regional school district was dissolved to compensate Lower Township for the tax increase.
Unanimous cooperation of Cape May City Council, West Cape May Commission, and the school board of both towns was needed to proceed. That did not happen.
Currently Lower Township has 14,751 registered voters while Cape May has 1,631 voters. The numbers clearly show a referendum would not benefit Cape May.
In December 2003, the regional school board voted 6-2 against a resolution from Cape May asking to change the funding formula to one based on 60 percent from property value and 40 percent based on the amount of students sent to the district. The school board also voted against placing a referendum on the April 2004 school board election ballot for changing the regional school funding formula.
The process stopped for Cape May in January 2005 when both West Cape May Borough Commission and the West Cape May Board of Education voted against holding a voter referendum. West Cape May is also a member of the regional school district.
Cape May’s cost to send students to the regional school district has been rising.
In 2001, Cape May was paying about $25,000 per student. In 2003, Cape May was paying $38,558 for each student sent to Lower Cape May Regional High School District. That year the taxpayers association said they feared the cost would reach $50,000 per student.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
