Neptune City Feasibility Study: An Analysis of the Educational, Fiscal and Organizational Options Available to Neptune City Board of Education R & R.

S

Neptune City Feasibility Study: An Analysis of the Educational, Fiscal

and Organizational Options Available to Neptune City Board of

Education

R & R Education Consulting, LLC

Introduction

Rationale for the study

Methodology

Areas Covered Enrollment Program Impact Financial Considerations

Findings

Programmatic FindingsNeptune City

Performance of students enrolled in Neptune City lags significantly behind that of students statewide and also behind that of schools in its designated “peer group”.

School Performance - 2013/14

Academic Trend Data

Programmatic SummaryNeptune Township

Township performance in both grades K-5, and 6-8 lags significantly behind both the state averages and peer group performance.

Performance levels in the Township’s K-5 schools vary significantly (see report tables) with Language Arts proficiency ranging from 24% to 54% over the years 2011/13-20131/14 and Mathematics proficiency ranging from 49%-83% over the same time period.

Students in Neptune City’s school in grades K-5 have outperformed their peers in the Township schools in Language Arts. There appears to be little difference in performance among K-5 students in Mathematics in either district.

Performance of Township middle schoolers has increased in Language Arts as they have moved through the middle level grades, while students performance in Mathematics has declined over the same period.

Programmatic Summary

District has managed to avoid significant drops in performance on state assessments; however, performance lags significantly behind state averages and peer groups schools.

Interviews and data strongly suggest that Neptune City is struggling to meet the academic needs of its students.

Fiscal issues facing the district have limited, and are likely to continue to limit, the district’s ability to respond to the increasing challenges presented by increasing expectations, continued unfunded mandates, and changing demographic patterns.

Down 55 Students 15%

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-200

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Estimated Enrollment Neptune City

Sp. Ed. MiddleElementaryPre-K

Up 125 students 2.9%

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-200

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

Estimated EnrollmentNeptune Township

Sp. Ed. HighMiddleElementaryPre-K

Up 70 Students 1.5%

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-200

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Combined Estimated Enrollments

Sp. Ed. HighMiddleElementaryPre-K

948 Total Capacity 1200

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-200

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

Middle Grades Enrollment Estimates

City Township

Impact of Regionalization on Ethnic Balance

White Black Hispanic AsianNative

AmericanHawaiian

NativeTwo or

More Races Total

City 206 92 78 19 1 0 0 396

52.02% 23.23% 19.70% 4.80% 0.25% 0.00% 0.00% 100.00%

Township 1021 2325 789.5 92 2 3 196 4428.5

23.06% 52.50% 17.83% 2.08% 0.05% 0.07% 4.43% 100.00%

Total 1227 2417 867.5 111 3 3 196 4824.5

25.43% 50.10% 17.98% 2.30% 0.06% 0.06% 4.06% 100.00%

Impact on Ethnic Balance at Middle School Level

White Black Hispanic AsianNative

AmericanHawaiian

NativeTwo or More

Races TotalCity

Grade 6 21 8 5 2 1 0 0 37Grade 7 19 9 7 3 0 0 0 38Grade 8 26 9 6 1 0 0 0 42Total 66 26 18 6 1 0 0 117

56.4% 22.2% 15.4% 5.1% 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%

TownshipGrade 6 57 150 42 4 0 1 14 268Grade 7 55 153 47 11 0 0 6 272Grade 8 57 168 31 6 0 0 11 273Total 169 471 120 21 0 1 31 813

20.8% 57.9% 14.8% 2.6% 0.0% 0.1% 3.8% 100.0%

CombinedGrade 6 78 158 47 6 1 1 14 305Grade 7 74 162 54 14 0 0 6 310Grade 8 83 177 37 7 0 0 11 315Total 235 497 138 27 1 1 31 930

25.3% 53.4% 14.8% 2.9% 0.1% 0.1% 3.3% 100.0%

District Budget and State Aid – 2013/14

Regionalization Model – State Aid and Tax Impact

Estimated Enrollment Impact on State Aid and Tax Levy

Estimated Tuition Rates for Neptune Township

Estimated Total Tuition - Regular Students

Estimated Total Tuition – Special Ed. Students

Recommendations

1. Since there appear to fiscal hurdles to simply expanding the sending/receiving relationship to include grades 6-8, combined with significant access to cost-offsetting state aid, the City Board of Education should move to establish a new regional district with Neptune Township.

Recommendations

2. The Neptune City Board should share this report with the administration and the Neptune Township Board.

Recommendations

3. The two Boards and administrations should meet and discuss the report to ascertain if there is interest in moving forward.

Recommendations

4. If there is interest, the Boards should notify the NJDOE about their interest and solicit their assistance in completing a regionalization study.

Recommendations

5. Should the board wish to exhaust all possible options for maintaining Neptune City as an independent school district, the board might explore the conditions under which the state would appoint a fiscal monitor.

While this might advance this outcome, it would also likely involve significant loss of local control and could, quite possibly, result in a recommendation to cease to operate as a K-8 district.