Dear Eatontown Public Schools Community Member:
Over the last eight years, Eatontown Public Schools has participated in the school funding debate in an active and thoughtful manner. The Board of Education and I have written letters on behalf of the school system, submitted information to various government officials about our school district, and attended many meetings with local legislators as well as the Governor’s Team to demonstrate the negative impact the elimination of state aid would have on our schools in the future. Although our data and information presented along the way demonstrated that Eatontown Public Schools has experienced many challenges over the years affecting our ability to provide a “thorough and efficient” education, the state aid reductions continued.
In order to be more precise, the S-2 schedule of reductions for Eatontown are listed below:
2019-2020- 13% ($286,000)
2020-2021- 23% ($429,523)
2021-2022- 37% ($522,703)
2022-2023- 55% ($520,884)
2023-2024- 76% ($145,982)
2024-2025- 100% ($0)
Eatontown Public Schools received $4.3 million in state aid in 2018-2019 and received $1.9 million in state aid for 2025-2026. Once all the state aid cuts were enacted, Eatontown Public Schools lost approximately $2.4 million dollars in state funding on an annual basis.
As an Eatontown community member, you are aware of the impact the closure of Fort Monmouth had upon our community and schools. When Fort Monmouth closed in 2010, student enrollment decreased. In addition, the Eatontown economy was impacted as well. Over the last 14 years, our schools have committed to providing effective services to students from a diverse array of educational backgrounds and learning styles. The success of our school system is its ability to provide appropriate programs from Gifted and Talented to Special Education services to our diverse student population.
The students who make-up Eatontown’s enrollment figures have changed. According to Rutgers University, Eatontown is one of 18 communities in NJ that has a population that is perfectly correlated to the entire NJ population. In addition, here are a few ways our student enrollment has changed over the years:
Currently, our Free and Reduced Lunch percentage is 51%.
Our special education population is about 23%.
Our ELL population is about 9.5%.
Eatontown provides services for about 23 homeless students.
The state funding plan severely limited our district's ability to provide a “thorough and efficient” education for Eatontown students. According to the NJ Constitution and past NJ Supreme Court decisions, a “thorough and efficient” education is defined simply as a requirement that the State ensures equal educational opportunity for school children in our state. Rising costs, the need for more educational services, and the exhaustion of one-time revenues have created a severe financial strain on the school district.
In response to this complex fiscal problem, the district has had to reduce and cut staff and services designated for students’ learning. Examples include reorganizing the district three times, reducing transportation services for students, cutting the district Gifted and Talented teacher, decreasing special area programs such as art, music, and library, eliminating after-school programs for students, cutting the Winter Learning Academy, and reducing classroom positions from 6 classes per grade level to 4 classes per grade level which increased class sizes. These reductions have led to the district’s need to complete an improvement plan for Curriculum and Instruction based upon our latest QSAC review this year.
The Eatontown Board of Education, Administration, and community also have contributed to mitigating this complex problem. The Board has taken the full 2% tax levy increase since 2016. Last year, the Board of Education approved an additional increase to the tax levy of 9.9% or $987,466 in July 2024 using the Stabilization School Budget Aid Grant Program.
Following the line of reasoning established above, the Board of Education desires to continue to support the educational mission of the schools by providing additional funding to support staffing and services that have been lost along this challenging fiscal journey. At its meeting on Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 7:00 p.m., the Board plans to approve $1,557,568 million dollars in tax levy support and $77,878 Tax Levy Incentive Aid provided by the state to improve educational outcomes for students in the future. This approval needs to be completed by Monday, April 14, 2025 in order for the state to review this application. This new revenue will support the following staffing and program initiatives to support our diverse learning community to achieve educational success as well as social and emotional well-being:
Six academic Interventionists for ELA and STEM support
One additional ELL teacher to provide ELL support
One Behaviorist to address increasing student behavioral needs that affect students’ education
One additional School Social Worker focused on developing family supports and programs such as attendance intervention and school belonging
One additional middle school Math teacher to provide Algebra instruction for students
One Special Education teacher to provide additional services for students
One District Gifted and Talented and Enrichment Teacher to enhance programs in this area
The re-establishment of the effective Winter Learning Academy which provides ELA and mathematics support on Saturdays for students
The establishment of an afternoon program for our morning Summer Learning Academy through the YMCA
Additional after-school academic and SEL programs for students
Transportation services to help support students’ participation in these after-school programs.
All these staffing priorities and student programs will target the improvement of student learning outcomes related to academic and social emotional learning for a diverse school community.
This additional tax levy support will help our district return to the funding levels we were at 14 years ago when the costs and needs for staffing and services were much less. According to our estimates, the additional cost of supporting this funding plan will be approximately -$74.41 per year or -$6.20 per month on a property assessed at $563,919.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Scott T. McCue
Superintendent of Schools