TheTOMS RIVER Times Vol. 18 - No. 48
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM
Rain Plays April Fool’s Prank On Postponed Saint Patrick’s Day Parade
In This Week’s Edition
Tentative School Budget Prepared By Chris Lundy T OM S R I V E R – School off icials put together a tentative budget to present to the state but are holding out hope for more of a cushion. The tentative 2023-2024 budget is $270,435,500. Of this, $186,903,573 is to be raised by taxes. The amount to be raised in taxes increased by $7,875,116 from the cur rent year, which was $179,028,457. However, t h is b u d g e t a n t ic i p a t e s $13,346,822 in additional requested state aid. Toms River is one of many districts that have lost aid consistently since 2018 due to a funding formula
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─Photos By Bob Vosseller Members of the Ocean County Emerald Society Pipes and Drums were among the performers who made it out to the parade. There were several musical acts entertaining the crowd. By Bob Vosseller SEASIDE HEIGHTS – An April Fool’s Day Saint Patrick’s Day Parade? Would that mean an event chock full of shenanigans?
For the second year in a row, the Ocean County Saint Patrick’s Day Parade was postponed until April. This year, it took place on April 1. It was a rain or
shine event and unfortunately, it rained. The postponement didn’t stop people like Debbie Burghart-Platt and
1865: Abraham Lincoln On Friday night -
Good Friday - April 14, 1865 P re side nt Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending a performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. He died the next morning. The first American President to be assassinated, Lincoln’s death sent shockwaves throughout the nation.
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Toms River at that time was a small village which 15 years earlier had been named the seat of the newly created Ocean County. It had one weekly newspaper - the Ocean Emblem. It referred to Lincoln as the “Great Martyr of Freedom” and reported that the Secretary of War had
(Parade - See Page 4)
determined that “the conspiracy of the assassination was concocted in Canada.” Toms River had a favorable view of Abraham Lincoln. While New Jersey supported his opponents in the elections of 1860 and 1864 - the only northern state to do so - that was not the case here.
In 1860, Lincoln carried our town by a wide margin and in 1864 he was again supported in a campaign against one of his generals, George McClellan (who he had relieved of command) who was a resident of New Jersey at the time. While Toms River mou r ne d Li ncol n’s (History - See Page 6)
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refe r re d t o a s S -2. This redirected money from some schools with lowering enrollment to schools with growing enrollment. However, the exact fo r m u l a h a s n e ve r been revealed to the public. T h e To m s R i v er district had been a nt icipat i ng a los s of aid in the amount of $2 ,6 8 8 , 937. I n stead, they received a su r pr ise cut of $14,421,851. In response to several towns throughout the state protesting cuts like these, state lawmakers passed a bill that said if a district suffered from a reduction in aid under S-2 for the 2023-2024 (School - See Page 5)
The Pros And Cons Of Students Using AI To Write Papers
This Month In History: Remembering Great Losses By J. Mark Mutter April, a tough month in history: the death of two presidents, the killing of a religious leader, and a catastrophe off the Jersey coast. Here’s how Toms River reacted.
April 8, 2023
By Andrey Nalbantov OCEAN COUNTY As a powerful language model, ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize schoolwork by providing students with instant access to information, personalized assistance, and innovative learning tools. While ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for students, there is a risk of over-reliance on technology and a lack of critical thinking and
problem-solving skills. The previous two parag raphs ref lected both sides of the ChatGPT coin, but they also had another role in this article. Those two paragraphs were written by ChatGPT itself, when asked how it might affect education in both positive and negative manners. Released at the end of November, the chatbot created and founded by Sam Altman took the (AI - See Page 9)
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