Neptune City Feasibility Study: Educational, Fiscal, and Organizational Analysis

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 Findings Neptune City School Performance - 2013/14 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 .

Academic Trend Data

Programmatic Summary Neptune 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% Estimated Enrollment Neptune City 400 350 300 250 Sp. Ed. Middle 200 Elementary Pre-K 150 100 50 0 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20

Up 125 students 2.9% Estimated Enrollment Neptune Township 5000 4500 4000 3500 3000 Sp. Ed. High 2500 Middle Elementary 2000 Pre-K 1500 1000 500 0 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20

Up 70 Students 1.5% Combined Estimated Enrollments 6000 5000 4000 Sp. Ed. High 3000 Middle Elementary Pre-K 2000 1000 0 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20

948 Total Capacity 1200 Middle Grades Enrollment Estimates 1200 1000 800 City 600 Township 400 200 0 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20

Impact of Regionalization on Ethnic Balance Native American Hawaiian Native Two or More Races White Black Hispanic Asian 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 Native American Hawaiian Native Two or More Races White Black Hispanic Asian Total City Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Total 21 19 26 66 8 9 9 26 5 7 6 18 2 3 1 6 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 37 38 42 117 100.0% 56.4% 22.2% 15.4% 5.1% 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% Township Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Total 57 55 57 169 20.8% 150 153 168 471 57.9% 42 47 31 120 14.8% 4 11 6 21 2.6% 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 14 6 11 31 3.8% 268 272 273 813 100.0% 0.0% 0.1% Combined Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Total 78 74 83 235 25.3% 158 162 177 497 53.4% 47 54 37 138 14.8% 6 14 7 27 2.9% 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 14 6 11 31 3.3% 305 310 315 930 100.0% 0.1% 0.1%

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 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. 1.

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

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

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

Recommendations 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. 5. 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.