Asbury Park board warns of deep budget shortfall driven by state aid cuts and charter payments

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,…