 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  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 /14

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/ /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.

Programmatic Conclusions  Language Arts performance is comparable in both districts.  In Mathematics, Neptune City students continue to outperform their peers in the Township’s middle school, although math performance at Wilson appears to decline significantly in the middle school grades.  Were there no fiscal considerations, there would appear to be no significant advantage to move the City’s K-5 students to the Township schools.  Continued fiscal constraints will significantly restrict the City’s ability to maintain and/or improve its current program offerings.

Down 55 Students 15%

Up 125 students 2.9%

Up 70 Students 1.5%

948 Total Capacity 1200

Impact of Regionalization on Ethnic Balance WhiteBlackHispanicAsian Native American Hawaiian Native Two or More RacesTotal City %23.23%19.70%4.80%0.25%0.00% % Township %52.50%17.83%2.08%0.05%0.07%4.43%100.00% Total %50.10%17.98%2.30%0.06% 4.06%100.00%

Impact on Ethnic Balance at Middle School Level WhiteBlackHispanicAsian Native American Hawaiian Native Two or More RacesTotal City Grade Grade Grade Total %22.2%15.4%5.1%0.9%0.0% 100.0% Township Grade Grade Grade Total %57.9%14.8%2.6%0.0%0.1%3.8%100.0% Combined Grade Grade Grade Total %53.4%14.8%2.9%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.