The Manchester Township Board of Education adopted a resolution calling for the state to re-establish the distribution of senior stabilization aid to school districts located in municipalities with high concentrations of senior citizens.  The School Funding Reform Act of 2008 eliminated proposed aid of $500 per student, up from $200, for towns like Manchester, where an anomaly in the school funding formula causes the district to be classified as wealthy due to home prices despite the high number of residents living on retirement incomes.  According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 54.5% of Manchester’s residents are age 65 or older.

“While other school districts in New Jersey receive an average of 41% of their budget from state funding, because of our high concentration of senior residents, the funding formula deems Manchester a wealthy district and gives us only 15%.   Anyone who lives here knows our community is far from wealthy,” said Superintendent of Schools, Dr. William E. DeFeo.  “Our residents can ill afford to lose the property tax relief provided by senior stabilization aid and we support our 9th District legislators in their efforts to restore it.”

Sen. Christopher J. Connors, NJ 9th District, said the elimination of the aid was one of the reasons he and Assemblymen Brian E. Rumpf and Daniel M. Van Pelt voted against the new school aid package.  They said they will introduce a bill that would give $500 in school stabilization aid to communities where senior citizens comprise at least 45 percent of the population and meet the income bench marks included in the program.

 “The new funding formula does not include any senior stabilization aid at all,” said Peter Corigliano, School Business Administrator.  “We’ve been losing aid over the past few years due to the different type of aid categories.  If the 9th District’s stabilization aid bill is passed, it will mean over 1.5 million dollars more in state aid to our district.”

Manchester Township, Berkeley Schools, and Central Regional Schools have also passed resolutions in support of this legislation.