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Loch Arbour voters overwhelming approved pulling its students from the Ocean Township School District Tuesday.

The special election votes garnered 97 supporters and four nayes, according to the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office online result page. The village has 136 registered voters.

The approval means Loch Arbour can move forward with plans to send its 14 school-aged children to the West Long Branch and Shore Regional High School at a reduced per-pupil tuition rate.

“It’s all about the will of the voters and tonight the voters in Loch Arbour exercised their right to self-govern and overwhelmingly decided for themselves that their children will be educated in West Long Branch & Shore Regional schools starting in September 2017,” Loch Arbour Mayor Paul Fernicola [above right] said.

Ocean Township, which has a 3,500 student body, fought to stop the move but was denied so by Acting State Commissioner of Education Kimberley Harrington and by a Superior Court decision on March 24.

In their argument, Ocean Township maintained that the loss of the students would result in the termination of 20 staff members, a return to pay to play status for some sports, and the elimination of courtesy busing.

In a November 2015 feasibility study, Loch Arbour cited crippling school taxes as its primary reason for wanting to pull out of the school district.

Last year, Loch Arbour paid $2.1 million in taxes, equating to a $125,000 per pupil cost, to have its 16 students educated in the Ocean Township School District, Mayor Paul Fernicola has said.

Conversely, the Ocean Township School District’s per pupil cost is $16,000 per student.

The large tax burden prevented property rich but cash poor residents, especially its senior population who were living on fixed incomes in homes their families have owned for generations, without the ability to sell.

“It was so onerous on Loch Arbour,” Fernicola has said. “The amount we were paying in taxes really had a negative impact on the ability to sell homes.”

The village’s West Long Branch per pupil cost is estimated to be $16,000 to $17,000, an $11, to $12,000 annual tax savings.

“On behalf of the Loch Arbour residents we sincerely thank the teachers and administrators of the Ocean Township school district for their many years of dedication and professionalism in educating our children,” Fernicola said.

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