Mike Deak

@MikeDeakMyCJ

MANVILLE - The school district isn't go to take it anymore.



After decades of being underfunded by the state and the annual spring rite of defeating school budgets, the Manville education community has decided to fight back.



The Manville PTA groups have started an online petition, https://www.change.org/p/fair-public-school-funding-on-behalf-of-the-manville-school-district, to ask for a change in the formula of how state aid is distributed to local school districts.



The petition, which had drawn more than 300 signatures as of Friday afternoon, has a simple message for Gov. Chris Christie: "Manville students need help NOW."



The formula has become the hottest topic in New Jersey politics since Christie proposed a change in the formula that would provide equal funding for each child enrolled in a public school.



READ:Christie wants 'fairness' in school funding



READ: NJ plagued by unjust school funding formula

READ: School-funding puzzle: Study shows aid isn’t a cure-all

READ: Manville residents angry over property taxes



The governor announced Thursday that his administration would go to court to reopen the Supreme Court's Abbott ruling that mandated additional state aid for the 31 lowest-income school districts in the state.



According to a study published earlier this year, Manville, along with Bound Brook, were among the 10 most underfunded school districts in the state.

In the past two years, according to Manville school officials, the school district has kept with the state's 2 percent budget cap, but that has still forced Manville to reduce staff and programs in the past two calendar years, and is at the threshold of having to cut programs such as eliminating full-day kindergarten.



That's why Superintendent of Schools Anne Facendo and the school board reached out to Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R-District 16) to ask for help.



Ciattarelli, a would-be gubernatorial candidate in 2017 who lives in neighboring Hillsborough, came to the Sept. 13 school board meeting and told the capacity audience that change is needed.



“When middle-class school districts like Manville are underaided and struggling to fund their own core K-12 curriculum, and when blue-collar towns like Manville are experiencing a property tax crisis driven largely by a blatantly unfair school funding formula, how can we justify New Jersey taxpayers paying for overaided school systems and free Pre-K for millionaires living in places like Hoboken and Jersey City?” Ciattarelli said.



Hoboken and Jersey City are two of the 31 Abbott districts that receive about 56 percent of the state aid to New Jersey's 577 school districts..



According to the assemblyman, Hoboken receives $4,115 per student in state aid while Manville receives only $3,587.



"The fact that Hoboken receives more aid per student than Manville is an injustice of epic proportion, as is the rich benefiting greatly by moving to towns whose school systems are heavily subsidized by New Jersey taxpayers," the assemblyman wrote in an op-ed article earlier this year.



District officials say Manville, with about 1,450 students, suffered a $1 million cut in state aid at the depth of the recession in 2010 and 2011. That gap has never been filled, resulting in Manville "being significantly underfunded."



Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com