TOMS RIVER, NJ — A referendum on a proposal to add the Seaside Heights School District to the Toms River Regional School District may not be held in March, as the districts await approval from the state commissioner of education.
The districts, which approved the wording for the referendum in early January, had hoped to hold the referendum March 12, one of four dates designated by the state Division on Elections for special school board elections in 2024.
As of Wednesday, however, the referendum has not received approval from the commissioner of education, Citta confirmed.
The state Department of Education on Jan. 31 said the petition remains under review and "has not progressed to the point of towns being approved to hold a vote."
The review is required because the regionalization petition includes the request for Seaside Heights to withdraw from the Central Regional School District, said Michael Yaple, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. Seaside Heights has been part of Central Regional since the district — which serves middle and high school students — was formed in 1954. The district includes Seaside Park, Island Heights, Ocean Gate and Berkeley Township. It originally included Lacey Township, but that district withdrew in when it opened its own middle and high schools in 1981.
"In the case of any district petitioning to withdraw from one district and join another, it must be 'approved by the Commissioner of Education, in consultation with the Director of the Division of Local Government Services in the Department of Community Affairs, as meeting (specific) criteria' as defined in N.J.S.A. 18A:13-47.11a(2)-(8)," Yaple said.
Complicating matters is the retirement as of Jan. 31 of acting Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan. Gov. Phil Murphy has appointed Kevin Dehmer, who previously served as the interim education commissioner. Dehmer does not start until Monday, Feb. 12, North Jersey.com reported.
Dehmer's start date leaves a very narrow window for approval of the referendum. The state Division of Elections chronological timeline for a March 12 special election notes the need for the Ocean County Clerk to publish a legal notice of the availability of mail-in ballots by Jan. 15, and one announcing the special election by Feb. 19. The timeline also notes voter registration for the March 12 election closes Feb. 20.
"As per those dates (in the chronologial timeline) it would seem that the latest our office could administer our duties for a March 12 election would be approximately Feb. 20," Ocean County Clerk Scott M. Colabella said.
Alicia D'Alessandro, a spokesperson for the state Division of Elections, said there is "no statutorily mandated date by which mail-in ballots are to be sent to voters in annual April school board elections or for special school elections."
Sample ballots must be mailed no later than eight days before any election, under state statutes.
Citta said he received a call from the Board of Elections on Feb. 2 that they would not move forward with the referendum without approval from the education commissioner, and said he informed the Toms River Regional Board of Education of that.
"We're regrouping," Citta said, and looking at the potential for holding the referendum later in the year. There are two other dates designated for special school elections in 2024: Sept. 24 and Dec. 10.
Citta said the delay also puts $14.4 million up in the air, as district officials had anticipated receiving a grant for that amount if voters approve the proposed regionalization.
The move to withdraw Seaside Heights from the Central Regional Schools — its middle and high school students attend Central; elementary school students attend Hugh J. Boyd Elementary in Seaside — has drawn opposition from Seaside Heights families and from Central Regional.
A group in Seaside Heights has organized an effort titled "Help Hugh J. Boyd Elementary School," encouraging Seaside Heights residents to vote against the proposal.
In addition, the Central Regional School District is opposing the effort, saying allowing Seaside Heights to withdraw would be detrimental to Central Regional.
"They don't have a legal basis for stopping the regionalization," Citta said, adding Central Regional is being given a courtesy by being allowed to submit its opposition to the move.
"The study is the study and the law allows us to move forward with it," Citta said.
Central Regional Board Attorney Christopher Dasti has said that when the regionalization law Citta referred to was enacted in 2021, it did not repeal a previous law that gave Central Regional's towns the ability to vote on whether Seaside Heights can leave. That lawin 2005 allowed voters to reject an attempt by Seaside Park to leave Central Regional.
"The only thing the opponents can do is convince the commissioner to stop the referendum," Citta said.
Read more: Seaside Heights-Toms River School Regionalization: What It Would Mean
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