At a Saturday town‑hall meeting, the Asbury Park Board of Education told residents the district faces a multi‑million dollar shortfall driven by reduced state aid, rising local “fair share” calculations and large payments the district must make to charter schools.

Board President Tracy Rogers opened the session by placing the meeting under New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act and saying the presentation and numbers are still “fluid,” and that the board must act quickly to prepare a budget to submit to the county by March 19. "This is the fluid budget that is going on," Rogers said. "Some of the things you're going to see are not the exact numbers."

The finance committee’s chair, Wendy Glassman, and board members walked the audience through how the state funding formula works, how Asbury Park’s assessed property values and resident income increases have raised the state’s calculation of the district’s local fair share, and how that change, combined with legislation commonly referenced as S‑2, has reduced the district’s state aid over recent years.

"The funding formula is flawed," Glassman said. She and others repeated that the state sets the adequacy amount (what Glassman called a "plain vanilla" base) and then deducts a calculated local fair share; the remainder becomes state equalization aid. Glassman said the state base is "just under $14,000 per student."

Board member Kristen Clark, who identified herself as a high school math teacher, showed district numbers: assessed ratables rose from about $1.2 billion in 2015 to an estimated $3.3 billion in 2025, and local income figures rose from about $220 million in 2015 to about $650 million in 2024. Enrollment has dropped from roughly 2,250 students in 2014 to about 1,340 in 2024, a decline the board said reduces per‑pupil state aid while the state still counts charter students as the district’s financial responsibility.

Kristen Clark summarized the effect: "From the 2014 school year to just about the 2018 school year, our state funding was essentially flat ... In 2018, the state implemented S‑2 ... Our state aid has dropped every year since 2018 ... to the numbers just came out on Thursday: $17,500,000." The board then noted the district must pay charter schools an estimated $12,000,000 out of that aid, leaving roughly $5,500,000 in the cited state aid to serve district students.

Finance materials presented by Glassman and Dominic (surname not given in the transcript) showed district spending patterns: the total budget cited was about $57,000,000; salaries and benefits were the largest single cost, with the salary line described as roughly $23,000,000 and central‑office salaries described as approximately $1.7 million of that figure. The board said charter school payments now consume about 21% of the district budget and singled out residency verification, special‑education cost allocation and weak charter oversight as drivers of those payments.

Glassman said the district cannot verify residency for roughly 260 of about 600 charter students, and that an administrative‑law judge issued a decision on residency verification for one charter (identified in the meeting as College Achieve) that now rests with the New Jersey Commissioner of Education. The board said it is pursuing litigation and legislative fixes; among proposals are stronger residency verification, enhanced Department of Education oversight for charters, and local control over special‑education placements when charters cannot provide required services.

Board member Joe Grillo (spoken as "Joe"/"Joe Grill" in the transcript) outlined possible district responses to close the gap: right‑sizing the district by selling or repurposing properties (the maintenance building was cited as an item previously voted to pursue), outsourcing or studying operational costs, expanding shared services with the city and neighboring districts, regionalization studies paid for with state support, and new local revenue ideas such as an entertainment tax to capture dollars from concerts and events. Grillo described these as options, not final decisions, and said program and staff reductions are likely if revenue is not found.

Public commenters — teachers, parents, longtime residents and community organizers — broadly supported more programming and better facilities to retain students, questioned the district’s capacity to verify charter residency each year, and urged clearer community outreach. Teachers in the room described aging classroom materials and limited special‑education staffing; one teacher said her students scored “advanced proficient” on recent state assessments and urged recognition of classroom successes.

Board leaders repeated that many elements are outside local control: the NJ Constitution’s requirement of a "thorough and efficient" education sets obligations the district must meet (for example, individualized education program, or IEP, costs), while the state funding formula, pilot property rules and S‑2 changes largely determine the aid the district receives. The board said some aid categories (security, transportation) are essentially flat and do not scale with current needs.

Next steps announced: the board will hold a special public meeting on March 13 at 6 p.m. at Bradley School to present firm 2025–26 budget numbers and take additional public comment. The board also encouraged written questions by email and public participation as it pursues litigation, legislative advocacy and internal cost‑saving options. The meeting adjourned on a motion to adjourn moved by Mercer, seconded by another member, with the board voting "all in favor."