A letter reflecting approval of the Brigantine Board of Education’s request to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding specifying the details of a pending agreement between the Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District (GEHRSD) and the Brigantine School District was sent to GEHRSD Superintendent Steven Ciccariello on Feb. 25, according to Robert Previti, Brigantine schools superintendent.

Both the Memorandum of Understanding between the Brigantine Board of Education (BOE) and the GEHRSD as well as a severance request to the commissioner of education were written and ready for submission in April.

Upon a meeting with GEHRSD’s administration and board president along with Previti and Brigantine BOE President Michelle Maguire, an ad hoc committee of GEHRSD BOE members was formed to review and study the proposal for recommendation to their full board for action.

No member of the ad hoc committee or GEHRSD BOE was “willing to enter into a long-term relationship with Brigantine or any other district based on the uncertainties in the county and state of New Jersey,” according to a letter dated June 10 which Previti received from Ciccariello, confirming the decision.

While most knowledgeable educators were aware that the chance of changing the existing sending/receiving relationship would be difficult at best, it was thought that due to the existing political climate, Brigantine had a good chance once a Memorandum of Understanding existed between the two school districts. That would allow for a request to be submitted to the state commissioner of education to sever Brigantine’s agreement with the Atlantic City School District.

GEHRSD “was worried about the functional capacity of the year-old school,” according to a press release. Brigantine sent about 191 of its high school students to Atlantic City High School last year, with an almost equal number attending charter or private schools.

The Brigantine BOE has made many prior attempts to remove the fees the Atlantic City School District charges Brigantine taxpayers, who have seen a 65 percent increase over the last five years. The tuition for each student for the school year 2010-2011 was $20,630. The charge for a special education student was $33,070. The total amount billed to Brigantine for the school year 2010-2011 for all high school students was $4,485,490.

It is known that the Brigantine BOE would not have attempted the change in the city’s sending/receiving relationship with GEHRSD without some encouragement from that district.

“There were a number of meetings that were held in the committee of the board in discussing this topic,” Ciccariello said. “It was discussed and there was a motion that was put forward in public session that no one would second, so we couldn’t move forward on it.”

According to Ciccariello, there were a number of factors considered by the board before it came to its conclusion. He said if Brigantine were approved by the Department of Education to leave its agreement with the Atlantic City School District and enter into one with the GEHRSD, it would take another petition to the Department of Education to end the relationship if it wasn’t working out.

“If we entered into this relationship with Brigantine, the relationship is pretty much forever, so it’s not like you can say, ‘We’re going to do this for five years,’” Ciccariello said.

Another large factor was capacity. Ciccariello said the district would have to hire seven or eight more teachers just to accommodate the 190 students from Brigantine who currently attend ACHS. However, he said, the board was careful to consider the fact that there are more than 300 high school-aged students who would be eligible, and the district doesn’t have room for all of them.

“If you enter into this relationship and … it did get approved by the state, we needed to be able to accommodate all of their students,” Ciccariello said. He then said that 190 students was the maximum that Cedar Creek High School could take on top of its current enrollment.

More important, Ciccariello continued, is the fact that the GEHRSD comprises four sending districts that pay taxes and whose constituents would have to be consulted before moving forward.

The bottom line, Ciccariello concluded, was that accepting Brigantine at this time was not in the best interest of the GEHRSD.

While this is a blow to the Brigantine School District’s superintendent and BOE as well as Brigantine taxpayers, alternatives do exist. Attempts have been made at the legislative level to cap tuition increases, but have not progressed.

Any future tuition increases would have to come out of the district’s existing budget.

“With a 2 percent cap, if I can’t hold on (high school) tuition, the adjustments would be in the K-8 environment,” said Previti at the board’s Thursday meeting.

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