School District Renews Shared Services Agreement with Seaside Park

An agreement for Toms River to provide school services support to Seaside Park has been renewed. 

The agreement, which outlines the financial, administrative and facility management services Toms River's school district will provide for the borough, was approved by the Board of Education this week. Toms River Superintendent of Schools Frank Roselli also will serve in that capacity for Seaside Park's Board of Education. 

From grades kindergarten through sixth, 31 children from Seaside Park attend Toms River schools. Students from the borough in grades seven through 12 attend school in the Central Regional district, though they may opt to use Toms River for $10,000 in tuition.

Under the agreement, Toms River will assist Seaside Park with purchasing needs. Tasks needing "very little labor" will not be billed, but purchases requiring "a greater involvement" of Toms River administrators will be billed at $50 per hour, according to the resolution. 

Maintenance work orders will be handled by Toms River, with Seaside Park paying an hourly labor cost, cost of materials and a $10 administrative fee for each order, the resolution states.

Roselli will be paid $10,000 for his services which include attending Seaside Park Board of Education meetings and giving his approval to documents and complete reports.

Seaside Park closed the Seaside Park Elementary School in 2010 and formed the sending arrangement for K-6 students with Toms River

Resident Dennis Galante expressed concern that Toms River taxpayers might wind up footing the bill for some Seaside Park services, but district Business Administrator William Doering said that is not the case.

"If somebody from Seaside Park calls up and asks me a question about finance, by all means I'm going to answer the same way if it's someone from Manchester," he said. "If it involves utilizing our staff for legwork, in that circumstance we absolutely reserve the right to charge."

"There's absolutely no obligation to our taxpayers or to our board," Roselli said.

The agreement only involves the elementary students and has nothing to do with students in higher grades, which has been an ongoing issue. Seaside Park has a send-receive agreement with Central Regional, and students wishing to attend Toms River Regional from outside the district must pay tuition.

In 2011, Roselli told a Seaside Park representative that Toms River Regional would no longer accept the secondary students without paying tuition. A handful of students attend Toms River schools by paying the $10,000 in tuition, according to Doering.

"Those students who chose to come to our schools on a tuition basis are required to pay the tuition," Roselli said. "What we had done years ago is accept those students for free. We don't do that any more. They pay tuition set by the state."