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Now that fewer than half of Interlaken students are temporarily permitted to attend West Long Branch public schools, some of the borough’s parents must continue to pay for their children’s schooling or send students to Asbury Park until a final decision is reached. The issue was a topic of discussion at last night’s board of education meeting.

Administrative law Judge Patricia Kearns recently ruled students in Interlaken should “maintain the status quo,”  meaning those who have been attending West Long Branch and Shore Regional schools free of charge can continue until a hearing is held and a permanent solution is reached. Students who attended other schools but were already registered to attend West Long Branch schools for this year are also eligible to attend.

The board “sought to obtain relief for all students” through the judge’s ruling, board president Meredith Fox Wong said, but Judge Kearns only granted relief to students who were already attending West Long Branch schools.

Board attorney Anthony P. Sciarrillo said parents whose children are not able to attend West Long Branch and Shore Regional this year can file petitions with the commissioner of education to be included with the other students in the appeal.

A parent in the audience said she sends her two children to a public school in a nearby town by paying private tuition. She and her husband want their children to attend West Long Branch.

“We spoke to an attorney about filing an appeal and he quoted us $5,000,” she said. “This whole situation is not fair … I don’t know why I have to fight so hard to get my students enrolled when other children already go there.”

Sciarrillo suggested parents in similar situations throughout the town join to hire a single attorney to represent all of them and share legal fees.

On Aug. 16, the education commissioner will notify Sciarrillo as to when the formal OAL hearing will be held to find a permanent solution. The hearing will likely be held in November, he said.

The commissioner could also determine on Aug. 16 that all students in Interlaken can attend West Long Branch and Shore Regional this year until a permanent solution is reached, Sciarrillo said, leaving them just enough time to register for those districts.

The borough is home to about 50 school-aged children, and has no public schools of its own. Interlaken has maintained a send-receive relationship with Asbury Park since the 1940s. But last year, 20 students attended West Long Branch and Shore Regional schools with tuition paid by borough taxpayers, establishing a new send-receive relationship that was not sanctioned by the state or the county.

Now, the borough’s board of education is looking to formalize the relationship with West Long Branch and Shore Regional, on the grounds that the Asbury Park schools do not “meet the definition of a free, appropriate public education for the children of this community,” Interlaken’s board attorney Anthony P. Sciarrillo has said.

 

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