NJ Education Report

Since the publication of yesterday’s story about Asbury Park Public Schools’ “gender reveal” at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School and poorly-managed teacher evaluations, NJ Education Report has received some comments that merit clarification.

• A teacher  from Thurgood Marshall informed us that the school’s celebration of Principal Lauren Schulze’s pregnancy was the idea of staff members, not Schultze. The whole event only took six minutes, according to this source (another said it took 30 minutes, including time to walk back and forth to the gym) and teachers incorporated math and art lessons for the benefit of students.
• The article also noted the K-12 district has 1,700 students enrolled.  However, this enrollment figure is incorrect: district enrollment is down to 1,385 students, a loss of 600 students in 6 years.  According to this DOE database, in school year 2021-2022 Asbury Park enrolled 1,581 students. The new enrollment figure shows that the district lost 196 students from last year to this year.

When queried about what is driving the exodus of students, a highly-placed inside source said that more parents were applying to one of the areas two charter schools, Hope Academy and College Achieve. Indeed, College Achieve added 100  students in two years. Other families are moving to nearby districts like Neptune as the district flails under the leadership of Superintendent Rashawn Adams.

These new enrollment figures do nothing to solve the puzzle of an increasingly-heavy administration. For comparison purposes, let’s look at another K-12 district of about the same size, Clayton Boro, which has 1,400 students. While Asbury Park has four Curriculum and Instruction Supervisors, Clayton has one. While Asbury Park has a Business Administrator and an Assistant Business Administrator (plus a State Fiscal Monitor), Clayton has just a Business Administrator. While Asbury Park’s cost per pupil is $27,997, Clayton’s is $14,114.

This comparison isn’t completely fair. Asbury Park has more economically-advantaged students—53.6%—compared to Clayton, where 46.7% of students are low-income.

And yet something’s wrong in Asbury Park. The DOE knows this. Asbury Park teachers know this. Asbury Park parents, voting with their feet, know this. But nothing changes.

Yet there may be cause for hope: Asbury Park School Board member Dominic Latorraca lost in the November election and two newcomers, Michael Penna and Tracy Rogers, won seats. (Incumbent Barbara Lesinski also won.) New school board members can sometimes portend new direction. Let’s hope that Penna and Rogers, while a minority, will be able to jumpstart an honest conversation about what needs to change for Asbury Park to effectively educate students and retain high-quality teachers.