TOMS RIVER, NJ — Voters in five towns will head to the polls on April 16 to cast their ballots in a referendum on whether the Seaside Heights School District should merge with the Toms River Regional School District.
Here is what voters in the five towns — Seaside Heights, Toms River, Beachwood, Pine Beach and South Toms River — need to know about the referendum.
The Toms River-Seaside Heights special school election is set for Tuesday, April 16.
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Polling hours: 1:30 p.m.- 8 p.m.
Voter registration deadline: Tuesday, March 26. Voter registration can be done online. You also can print out a paper registration. It must be turned in to the Ocean County Board of Elections by Tuesday, March 26.
Find out what's happening in Toms Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Want to vote by mail? A mailed-in request for a vote-by-mail ballot must be received by the Ocean County Clerk’s office by Tuesday, April 9. Vote-by-mail applications can be submitted in person until 3 p.m. Monday, April 15.
Completed vote-by-mail ballots can be returned by mail (they must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on April 16) or deposited in one of six Ocean County Board of Elections vote-by-mail dropboxes. They must be deposited by 8 p.m. on April 16.
What’s on the ballot? The only item that will be on the April 16 ballot will be the question asking voters whether the Seaside Heights School District should be permitted to withdraw from the Central Regional School District — where its seventh through 12th graders currently attend school — and join the Toms River Regional School District.
For the regionalization to move forward, voters in Seaside Heights will need to approve the proposal, and voters in the Toms River Regional District as a whole will need to approve it as well. If either group rejects the proposal, the regionalization will not move forward.
Where can I learn more about the proposal? The Toms River Regional School District is holding information sessions that are being livestreamed.
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The first session was Monday, March 18; watch the recording.
The second session is Tuesday, March 19 and will be livestreamed here. It is set for 6 p.m. at Toms River Intermediate South in Beachwood.
The third session is Thursday, March 21, and the livestream will be here. It is set for 6 p.m. at Toms River High School East, Raider Way in the East Dover section of Toms River.
In addition, the Toms River Regional Board of Education meeting is Wednesday, March 20. The public session begins at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Toms River High School North.
Read more: Seaside Heights-Toms River School Regionalization: What It Would Mean
This is the wording of the referendum, as approved in January:
“Shall the Borough of Seaside Heights join the K-12 Toms River Regional School District as a constituent member, thereby withdrawing the Borough of Seaside Heights as a constituent member of the limited purpose Central Regional School District, with students from Seaside Heights being phased out of Central Regional School District and phased into Toms River Regional School District by grade; and with the property tax levy of the Borough of Seaside Heights being phased into Toms River Regional School District’s current equalized property value tax apportionment formula with Seaside Heights paying the educational tax levy associated with its current elementary district plus the regional tax levy to Central Regional for the year prior to regionalization while being provided with $1.2 million in savings each year in years 1-5, and further savings in years 6-10 while transitioning to 100% equalized property value, wih Toms River Regional taxpayers esitmated to save tens of millions of dollars over the same 10-year period?”
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