Asbury Park schools cut 26 jobs to make up for state aid shortfall; see what's taken away

ASBURY PARK - The Asbury Park School District will eliminate 26 positions in total, 22 due to economic reasons with the remaining four positions being abolished permanently, as part of the tentative 2024-2025 budget.

Acting Superintendent Mark Gerbino gave a presentation for the tentative budget at the Board of Education meeting on April 25. "I promise you that I will do everything in my power to make us whole again," he said.

The Asbury Park school district has been losing state funding since 2016, a cumulative loss of $26,138,837 by 2023, and an estimated cumulative loss of $36,429,860 in state funding by 2025 after nearly decade of S2 cuts, referring to the formula that calculates how much state aid each public school district gets. Districts that have seen declining enrollment, such as Asbury Park, have been heavily hit by state aid cuts.

"We can turn this district around, but it is going to take time and take some pain, unfortunately, but we can do it," Gerbino said. "I just need you to have patience and believe in what we can do."

There is a lot of "heavy lifting" that needs to be done, he said.

State aid plunges, tax hikes capped: Big layoffs might be forced on Jersey Shore schools

"People are being affected by this and I understand that," Gerbino said. "I do take that to heart, I have been here since 2001. I have been through it myself. I don't make these decisions lightly. I do it because we have to do what is right by the district."

The district is dealing with a shortfall this year of approximately $8 million in state aid; staffing alone accounts for $4.1 million.

"We have to cut stuff so we can make up for the $4.1 million that we are not getting to fund the district," Gerbino said.

Some of the 22 jobs being cut will come through attrition or retirement, but others could result in layoffs. The positions being lost include: two elementary teachers, two elementary instructional coaches, one secondary instructional coach, one language arts literacy coach, two reading specialists, one technology coach, one educational technology innovations coach, one PE/health teacher, three special education teachers, one alternative learning lab teacher, one allied health teacher, one school counselor, one in-school suspension teacher, one supervisor of curriculum and instruction, two teacher aides and one secretary.

The four positions that will be abolished include the central registrar and communications coordinator, the director of human resources, the director of special services, and one cosmetology teacher. If the district convinces the state to offer more aid, some of the 22 jobs could be reinstated, but the four abolished jobs are gone permanently.

The reduction in force will go into effect on July 1.

Asbury Park news: Rocking Stone Pony show to benefit Asbury Park Recreation Department summer programs

"For years we have had an inflated central office and administrative costs," Gerbino said. "We have declining enrollment. Over the last three years we have lost 500 students."

The median teacher salary in the Asbury Park school district for the 2022-2023 school year was $93,885, the second-highest in Monmouth County behind Freehold Regional High School District and the 38th-highest in the state. However, the student test scores in 2021-2022 ranked the school district dead last statewide, 436th out of 436 in language arts and 425th out of 425 in mathematics.

"We used to receive large amounts of state funding," Gerbino said. "We thought we could spend it anyway we want. With that, our test scores are still low."

The district is also dealing with $12 million in charter school payments and a busing cost of $3.4 million.

"The problem with (a) charter school right now is that they claim they have a certain number of students, we claim they don't," Gerbino said.

Last year, the district updated its residency verifications requirements to make sure students in the district actually live in the district.

The Asbury Park school district has three charter schools in its service area: Academy Charter, HOPE Academy and College Achieve Public Schools (CAPS). Academy and Charter complied with residency verification, but College Achieve sent outdated information and there are discrepancies in the files, according to the district earlier this school year.

College Achieve Asbury Park: First-year Shore high school team notches 26-point blowout for state boys basketball championship

"So we take our numbers, plus the two other charter schools we add them together and then take the number that College Achieves has, and we add it and that (total) we get is higher than the census of Asbury Park," Gerbino said. "Something doesn't add up. I know our numbers our correct, I know the other two charter schools are correct."

In 2022-2023 school year, Asbury Park sent $11 million to charter schools while the overall district budget was cut by $8.6 million.

There is a plan to restructure the district's administrative offices and make them "more efficient and cost effective," he said.

For example, the district pays $270,730 in rent annually for the central offices on Fourth Avenue. Gerbino proposes moving them to the district-owned former Barack Obama school building to save money.

Asbury Park: Medical marijuana dispensary lawsuit isn't ending anytime soon. Here's why.

Danielle Petrucci, a learning disabilities teacher consultant on the district's Child Study Team and executive secretary of the Asbury Park Education Association — the teacher's union — spoke out against the reduction in force.

"For the third year in a row, the agenda includes the elimination of critical positions that we need in order to operate this district and support our children," Petrucci said. "And yet again … includes the termination through the reduction of force of our bilingual Haitian Creole-speaking social worker. It is also sad I didn't have to rewrite this speech; I am using it from last year."

One resident objected to the elimination of the communications coordinator, claiming that position is an asset to the district and only being abolished due to personal issues stemming from the previous superintendent.

Asbury Park Schools Superintendent RaShawn M. Adams was placed on paid administrative leave by the school board in February. Adams had a contentious relationship with the teachers' union since taking charge two years ago. Gerbino was made interim superintendent in his place.

The district is still on the hook to pay Adams more than $400,000 for his contract, which doesn't run out until the middle of 2026, and the school board has yet to say what the long-term plans for district leadership are.

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park schools cut 26 jobs, some permanently, after NJ aid cuts