TheTOMS RIVER Times Vol. 20 - No. 35
In This Week’s Edition
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM
Locals Awarded For Drug Prevention, Mental Health Advocacy
BREAKING NEWS @
jerseyshoreonline.com
Government Page 6
Community News Pages 9-11
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 14
Inside The Law Page 12
Photos by Stephanie Faughnan (Left) Jennifer Huey, a science teacher at Toms River High School North, received the 2024 Mental Health Awareness Training School Ambassador Award. (Right) Toms River Schools received recognition for Excellence this year with a number of students focused on substance abuse prevention. By Stephanie Faughnan TOMS RIVER - The DART Prevention Coalition of Ocean County marked its 15th anniversary last month with a celebration recognizing individuals and communities dedicated to substance abuse prevention. DART, a program under RWJBarnabas Health’s Institute for Prevention and Recovery, works to reduce underage drinking, prescription drug abuse, and the illegal use of marijuana and tobacco. The coalition includes law enforcement, educators, business owners, substance
abuse professionals, faith lead- coalition member who exemplifies passion for substance misuse preers, and youth. vention and leadership. This year’s Farley award went Honoring Excellence to Anthony Pierro, recently reThe event featured several tired as Chief Juvenile/Domestic awards, including the prestigious Violence Prosecutor for Ocean Terrance P. Farley Recognition County. Michael Colwell, an of Excellence Award. This award agent with the Ocean County honors individuals who dediProsecutor’s Office and a DART cate their careers to substance executive board member, presentuse prevention and ensuring safe, drug-free communities ed the award. Pierro, unable to for youth. The late Terry Farley attend in person, joined the event was a former first assistant Ocean via video. “Anthony is a man who checks County Prosecutor and dedicated every single box every single day DART member since its inception (Awarded - See Page 4) in 2009. The award recognizes a
Leadership Changing In 2025
Photo by Stephanie Faughnan Outgoing Commissioner Gary Quinn stands with his family after being honored for his role in county government.
By Stephanie Faughnan TOMS RIVER - The Ocean County Board of Commissioners concluded their final meeting of 2024 honoring three officials whose contributions will not continue into the new year. The meeting celebrated their work while also setting the stage for political shifts and changes in county leadership in 2025.
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Clerk Retires Early Although his third term in office wasn’t set to expire until 2025, Ocean County Clerk Scott Colabella surprised a number of people with his decision to retire at the end of this year. A long-time resident of Barnegat Light, Colabella said he is ready to move to warmer (Leaderhsip - See Page 5)
January 4, 2025
NJ Wants Input On School Funding By Chris Lundy JERSEY SHORE – The New Jersey Department of Education is asking the public to comment on the way state aid is distributed. There is a link to submit comments at the bottom of this page: nj.gov/education/sfra. shtml. All comments must be received by January 17. School Aid Impact Many local districts have been severely impacted by cuts in school aid. The funding formula changed with a bill called S-2 in 2018. Toms River has lost millions of dollars and dozens of staff positions during the course of this process. In the last round of funding, aid dropped by $2,798,243 after years of cuts. Jackson lost millions every year as well. The most recent cut was $4,459,769. That district had to sell a school this year. Lacey is another district facing a crunch. Their most recent cut was $3,205,902. Officials put forward a $92 million referendum this spring for capital projects like roofing and HVAC. Barnegat, Little Egg Harbor, and Pinelands Regional all saw cuts in excess of $1 million for this year. Long Branch lost $10,401,402 this year, while Neptune Township lost $4,448,559. Part of the problem is that these cuts are cumulative. This year’s cuts reduce state aid from last year, which was reduced from the previous year, and so on going back until 2018. Another law states that districts can’t raise taxes more than 2 percent each year. Therefore, the amount a district can tax to make up the shortfall shrinks every year as well. Using round numbers, if a budget is $100 one year, it could be $102 next year, because they taxed 2% of 100. However, if the budget is cut to $90, then the district can only tax 2% of $90, which becomes $91.8. Seeing the dire circumstances some districts are in, the state has allowed schools that were severely impacted to increase taxes by 9.9% for one year. (School Funding - See Page 7)
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