State To WLB, Shore Regional: Interlaken Students Must Go To Asbury Park Schools

The state has told the West Long Branch and districts that they should not have accepted 19 Interlaken children.

According to an Asbury Park Press article, Joseph F. Passiment Jr., the interim executive Monmouth County superintendent, wrote the Interlaken board March 12 that it ignored a directive last August that said the district was sending the children on a sending-receiving basis that was not approved by the state commissioner and that contract had to be rescinded.

“The Interlaken Board of Education as well as the boards of education of West Long Branch and Shore Regional ignored the directive and continued to establish a sending-receiving relationship under a tuition contract basis for the 2011-2012 school year,” Passiment wrote according to the Press article.

The article also states that Passiment said that "in order for the state not to impose sanctions against Interlaken, the board now must pass a resolution voiding the current sending-receiving relationship with the West Long Branch and Shore Regional school districts and pass another resolution stating that any student who continues in those schools in the coming year will do so through an individual parent-paid tuition program to be set up between the West Long Branch and Shore Regional schools and the parents."

Interlaken is a non-operating district and does not have any schools, but by state law, is a sending district to Asbury Park city schools, according to the Asbury Park Press.

"Parents in recent decades have sent their children to private schools instead, and most commonly cite Asbury Park being designated as a failing school district as the reason why," the article states.

West Long Branch Interim Superintendent/Business Administrator Herbert Massa told Patch he has met with the state and that the schools' attorneys are "working on this to allow them to stay."

Massa said 17 Interlaken children attend the West Long Branch Public Schools and two attend Shore Regional. He said the students have been attending the schools since the beginning of the 2011-12 school year.

Massa said he hopes the attorneys are able to have the situation resolved by May, and that the students will be allowed to continue their education in West Long Branch.

The West Long Branch Board of Education passed its budget on Tuesday night, and were allowed to do because it is under the state-mandated 2 percent tax levy cap.

Massa told Patch that allowing the Interlaken children to attend West Long Branch Public Schools would result in a $170,000 tax levy reduction.

"They want to come to West Long Branch and we have the capacity," Massa said. "Our mission is that we want an education for youngsters."

According to the Press article, Meredith Fox Wong, the Interlaken board president, "told the approximately 25 people who came out to the meeting Monday that they are in continual discussions with the state and county superintendent and do not have additional information for the public as yet.

“As you know, our objective here on the board has always been to find a viable public school option at the least cost to taxpayers,” she said in the article. “Unfortunately, we have a failing school district (Asbury Park) that is not an option and hasn’t been for at least 30 years.”