By Donald Wittkowski
For the seventh straight year, property owners in Sea Isle City will not see an increase in their school taxes, although spending is going up in the 2018-2019 Board of Education budget for tuition and special education services.
Overall, the school budget totals nearly $2.4 million, an increase of about $246,000 over last year’s spending plan, according to Board of Education President Dan Tumolo.
Tumolo explained that most of the increase can be attributed to higher tuition and transportation costs for Sea Isle students who attend the Cape May County Special Services School in Cape May Court House.
Sea Isle, which closed its own public school in 2012 due to declining enrollment, sends most of its students to the Ocean City school district. Sea Isle pays Ocean City tuition for educating its students.
Tuition remains the biggest expense in the new school budget, which was adopted by the Board of Education on May 1. The spending plan includes nearly $1.7 million for tuition costs, Tumolo said.
Despite the higher budget for the 2018-2019 school year, school taxes will remain stable. The owner of a typical Sea Isle home assessed at about $642,000, will pay $261 in annual school taxes, Tumolo said.
“We haven’t had an increase in school taxes in seven years,” he said. “Our school budget is strong.”
As Sea Isle’s student population has declined, so has its school budget. Tumolo said the budget was once about $4 million. Budget spending fell when Sea Isle began sending its students in grades fifth through eighth to Ocean City in 2010, followed by third and fourth grades in 2011 and first and second grades in 2012.
Sea Isle’s student population is down again in 2018, a trend Tumolo blamed on the beach town’s upscale real estate market. He said younger families with children simply can’t afford to buy homes in Sea Isle and are seeking less-expensive housing in the mainland communities.
For 2018, there are 117 school-age children living in Sea Isle, compared to 130 in 2017, Tumolo said.
The city’s aging population is another factor in the downward trend of school children. U.S. Census figures for 2018 show that the average age of a Sea Isle resident is 63 years old, compared to 52 years old in 2010, Tumolo said.
Declining enrollment prompted Sea Isle to begin sending its students to Ocean City in recent years instead of continuing to operate its own school system.
Altogether, 78 students are sent to Ocean City’s public schools this year. A smaller number of students are sent to the Cape May County Special Services School.
Some students from Sea Isle also attend or have attended the private Bishop McHugh, Wildwood Catholic, Holy Spirit and St. Augustine Prep schools in Atlantic and Cape May counties.
