A Monmouth County town that currently sends its public school students to two different districts may seek to move them all to one, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled.
In a 7-0 decision announced Monday, the state’s top court said Sea Bright may seek to send students from kindergarten through 12th grade to the Henry Hudson Regional School District.
Sea Bright disbanded its school district 16 years ago. Currently, it sends the kindergarten through eighth grade students to the Oceanport School District and grades nine through 12 to the Shore Regional High School District.
Henry Hudson Regional enrolls students from Highlands and Atlantic Highlands.
“Based on the plain language of the relevant statutes, we hold that a municipality in Sea Bright’s position is a governing body authorized to pursue withdrawal from a school district to form or enlarge a regional school district,” wrote Justice Anne M. Patterson on behalf of the court.
The ruling upheld an earlier decision by the state Appellate Division.
Sea Bright was initially part of a merger plan in which Highlands and Atlantic Highlands agreed to disband their elementary school districts in order to join Henry Hudson Regional beginning in 2024.
Both Highlands and Atlantic Highlands were already sending seventh through 12th grade students to Henry Hudson Regional High School.
However, Sea Bright was removed from the merger plan — not long before it was approved by voters in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands — amid objections from Oceanport and Shore Regional.
Monday’s ruling appears to clear the way for Sea Bright to hold a referendum on the switch. The move would also need approval from voters in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands.
“There’s no standing legal impediment. This has been greenlighted by the commission of education, all the way up to the Supreme Court. We look forward to the voters being heard,” said Vito Gagliardi, Sea Bright’s attorney in the case.
Oceanport school board president Mark Patterson — of no relation to Justice Patterson — responded to the ruling with a written statement noting that it does not require Sea Bright to proceed with joining Henry Hudson Regional.
“Throughout the appellate process and any subsequent consideration of Sea Bright’s petition, the Oceanport Board of Education remains steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding the interests of both Sea Bright and Oceanport’s students, families, and taxpayers,” Patterson said.
Until 2009, Sea Bright was a non-operating school district — with no school board and no schools — that sent its students from kindergarten through eighth grade to Oceanport and from grades nine through 12 to the Shore Regional.
The district was dissolved, then merged with Oceanport, but still continued sending students to Shore Regional High School.
In June 2022, Sea Bright adopted a resolution seeking to join Henry Hudson Regional and, four weeks later, filed a joint petition with Highlands and Atlantic Highlands.
Oceanport and Shore Regional filed an appeal after the state education commissioner determined that Sea Bright was authorized to pursue an exit.
Patterson wrote that the New Jersey Legislature “has enacted a complex statutory scheme designed to promote the regionalization of school districts.”
“A core provision of that scheme authorizes certain governing bodies and school districts that are part of regional or consolidated school districts to withdraw from those districts in order to form or enlarge regional districts, subject to referendum,” Patterson wrote.
New Jersey is home to about 600 school districts but has few regionalized districts compared to many other states.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill in 2023 that gave districts financial incentives to study consolidation, including combining into county-wide or regional school districts.
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