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An administrative law judge has ruled that Interlaken’s school-aged children will be able to attend West Long Branch and Shore Regional schools on an interim basis until Department of Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf comes to a permanent decision on the borough’s send-receive relationship with Asbury Park.

About 20 students from Interlaken have been attending West Long Branch Elementary School and Shore Regional High School, despite the borough’s send-receive relationship with Asbury Park. That agreement has been in place since the 1940s.

But according to Interlaken officials, Asbury Park’s 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. Currently, four Interlaken students attend Asbury Park schools.

Sciarrillo [pictured above center] delivered an update on the status of the students at the Interlaken Board of Education meeting held Thursday, May 27. Board president Meredith Fox Wong [above left] presided over the meeting held in Interlaken borough hall.

The Interlaken Board of Education filed an application for an interim relief order “to ask the commissioner of education to maintain the status quo with respect to students who are attending West Long Branch Elementary School and Shore Regional High School,” Sciarrillo said. The application for interim relief also asked that West Long Branch and Shore Regional be considered receiving districts for Interlaken students on a permanent basis, either as a secondary agreement to the borough’s relationship with Asbury Park, or as the primary agreement.

That application was filed on April 26 and received by the commissioner of education, who referred them to the Office of Administrative Law. Interlaken, West Long Branch, Shore Regional and Asbury Park’s boards of education prepared statements to be heard by Judge Patricia Kearns on May 3. Representatives from those boards delivered the statements.

On May 11, Kearns issued an order granting the interim relief asked for by the Interlaken BOE, Sciarrillo said. “Those students going to West Long Branch and Shore Regional can continue, pending the outcome of the formal trial,” he said.

Next, the application will go to the Bureau of Controversies and Disputes inside the Commisioner’s Office. That office will take 45 days to review the judge’s order, Sciarrillo said. At the end of 45 days, Commissioner Christopher Cerf will issue a statement with respect to the order. The statement could affirm the order, modify it or reverse it.

“I don’t anticipate that we’ll hear [the outcome] before June 25,” Sciarrillo said.

In the meantime, new students in the district are free to enroll in West Long Branch and Shore Regional schools until a permanent solution is found, Sciarrillo said.

The interim decision will not impact taxpayers this year, board business administrator Dennis Kotch [pictured at top right] said.

“There’s money in the tuition reserve and surplus,” he said, in addition to money that was previously set aside for purchase of a school bus. The board is no longer using the funds for that purpose, so they will offset any increases in tuition.

After Sciarrillo said Asbury Park’s representatives had prepared a statement urging the commissioner to keep Interlaken’s students in the Asbury district, a borough resident asked if a change in the send-receive relationship could lead to extended litigation. A case in which southern Monmouth County municipalities joined against Asbury Park took three years and cost $500,000, he said.

“I’m not going to answer your question and the reason is because some of it goes to legal strategy,” Sciarrillo said. “But I’m fairly comfortable it would cost one fifth of that because the facts are different enough.”

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