Township Council Approves Central Regional Cut

The Township Council tonight unanimously approved a $815,233 cut to the defeated Central Regional school budget.

The cut was the only item on the agenda for the special council meeting.

"I really did not want to vote," Council President Karen Davis said after the meeting. "Central asked us to. They wanted to not make things any worse."

Central Regional schools Business Administrator/Board Secretary Kevin O'Shea said earlier today that if the five sending towns failed to agree on a cut, the defeated budget would go to the state Department of Education.

The Central Regional Board of Education went behind closed doors tonight to decide whether to accept the cut or send the budget to the state.

The $815,239 cut comes after hours of tense discussions in closed session during two previous meetings and phone calls between school and municipal officials on Tuesday and Wednesday, O'Shea said.

Township officials from all but Seaside Park had originally agreed to no cuts. But Seaside Park started out at $3 million, then went to $1.5 million.

The budget already called for the elimination of 11 district employees, cutting many accounts to the bare minimum, freshman sports and home economics.

"The prospects of losing additional programs and staffing levels was a chance I did not want to take," Council Vice-President Carmen J. Amato Jr. said before the meeting. "Although I respect Seaside Park's officials and their opinion...I respectfully disagree with Seaside Park's use of the defeated budget to express their frustration on the current school funding formula, the litigation and their desire to leave Central Regional."

If Board of Education members agree to accept the cut, it will be to protect the district, O'Shea said.

"The fear was the state might cut it even more," he said yesterday. "If you leave it to them to make a decision, they will make a decision nobody will like."

Although voters in Island Heights, Seaside Heights and Ocean Gate approved the $27,489,152 tax levy portion of the Central Regional $33,252,531 budget on April 27, it went down in Berkeley Township and Seaside Park. The total vote was 2,485 to 2,379 - a .