in Ocean County a plan to merge school districts is being met with opposition under the plan students at the lone Elementary School and Seaside Heights would transfer into the Toms River Regional School District But Central Regional School District where those Seaside Heights Elementary students currently transfer from middle and high school is not in favor and as senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports millions of dollars in state aid are on the line taxpayer will pay less the children will have a better education and it's a win-win for both districts Seaside Heights mayor Tony Vaz is backing a plan that would regionalize his school district by absorbing Seaside Heights students into the Toms River Regional School District he says it's necessary because enrollment keeps dropping in the one Elementary School that makes up the Seaside Heights district currently Seaside Heights middle and high schoolers attend Central Regional High School our children that attend our school with the declining enrollment are not doing well in our proficiency examinations Tom drier provides an opportunity for student growth curricular changes and it also provides tax incentives to save both Seaside Heights and the Toms River Community a great deal of money a feasibility study was conducted a few years ago that showed several positives from merging the districts Chief among them state aid increase es it would allow Tom's River to freeze the $26 million in funding cuts that have occurred over the last several years under the school funding formula known as S2 and could restore state aid under a law signed by Murphy called s 3950 that applies to any Regional School District that includes five municipalities adding Seaside would bring Tom's River to five it would put Tom's River back in a in a position to have sustainable Revenue growth without impacting our taxpayers which means that programs won't need to be cut those dollars are directly tied to Children's programs it would save Seaside Heights taxpayer dollars as well within approximately the first nine years Seaside Heights will save approximately $99 million The Proposal was submitted to the Department of Education yesterday for approval the plan does allow any student in seventh grade or higher who wants to continue attending Central Regional High School to do so until they graduate but the Cal Regional School District voted this week to challenge the move they declined to comment for this story but raised concerns about the impact on their taxpayers and said in their resolution such action would cause a detrimental impact to the students of Seaside Heights and the Central Regional School District and that they will undertake all necessary actions to encourage the Department of Education to reject such request the Seaside Heights teachers union is also raising concerns about the planned closure of the huj Boyd El Elementary School that they say is the Hub of the community if this merger goes through we would be the only municipality that doesn't have a community school within the town they would be busted um across the bridge to East over Elementary School the other four sending districts that are currently in Toms River schools all have a community school we don't have busing so all of our students um are are typically walked to school very few of our families have cars they say Seaside Height students would find themselves in much larger classes than they're used to Tom's River says their classes would actually decrease in some cases from 25 students to around 18 or 19 because they will hire all the Seaside Heights staff if approved by Doe the plan has to be voted on in a special referendum by both the Seaside Heights and Toms River communities sometime in March of next year I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight News NJ Spotlight News