Study Shows Shore Regional and West Long Branch Should Share Superintendent

Shore Regional and the West Long Branch School District will likely share a superintendent after a recent study concluded that it would be the best course of action for the schools

Both schools have interim superintendents, and the report concluded that they enter a shared service arrangement for that position.

The school districts, along with Monmouth Beach and Oceanport, entered into an agreement with Puleio & Strimple Associates in January to conduct a study to advise their boards of future options for providing administrative services.

The openings at Shore Regional and West Long Branch, combined with decreased aid and a down economy prompted the school boards to go ahead with the study in hopes of saving money and moving toward regionalization of some services.

The feasibility study also recommended that Shore and West Long Branch share a business administrator and director of special services since they are in the same town and students move to the high school.

However, West Long Branch Interim Superintendent and Business Administrator Herbert Massa said the districts would likely only share a superintendent at this time.

Shore Regional already has a full-time business administrator and Interim Superintendent Renae LaPrete was only given a one-year contract in June.

Massa said he was pleased with the findings of the report.

"It validated what we already know," West Long Branch Interim Superintendent and Business Administrator Herbert Massa said this week.

Massa said members of board of education in West Long Branch and Shore Regional going to have a meeting to decided how the districts will share services early next month.

"We have to do this soon, because we are getting into the summer and people are going on vacation," Massa said.

The West Long Branch School District has already started advertising for a part-time business administrator, who would take over for Massa once he is no longer an interim employee.

Oceanport Board of Education members were not as happy with the study's findings and at a recent meeting.

"I think we were looking for things we hadn't considered," said Oceanport Board of Education President Colin Soyer about the report that concluded that and Monmouth Beach were "less viable candidates for shared administrative services."

Massa said he believes the feasibility study "speaks for itself" and said he respects people who performed it.

"They have a combined 70 years of experience and I respect their findings," Massa said.