Janice Leaman: The Margate pupil base is shrinking and will continue to shrink. The standard is a free and appropriate education, not the most expensive education you can extract from taxpayers. NJ has among the highest taxes in the nation. Margate spends $32k+ for every student. That’s a private school education at the expense of taxpayers. The consequences of ridiculously overstaffed schools & high taxes: the resulting legacy costs that Margate and stupid NJ is creating for future generations. For each employee, Margate is creating future pension liability.
Christine Steelman-Eden: If you want to merge the 2 schools, it will cost us taxpayers a few million to accommodate all in one school. Ross School is still not paid for. We would still owe $ on that building.
Joanne Price: According to the Superintendent’s report dated Oct 19, 2018, there are 170 students enrolled in Ross school and 181 students in Tighe School ….total enrollment for both schools is 351. That includes 33 students from Longport.
Neil Shander: The dollars spent per child are extremely high when compared to the national average. We are retired teachers who value Margate schools. That being said, Margate is in the top % of per child spending in the country. Other blue ribbon schools find a way to spend less. Why shouldn’t Margate be fiscally responsible?
Amy Rosenberg says: Time to consolidate with Ventnor schools. They are just as good as Margate.
Amy Rosenberg:Â Margate schools are excellent schools. But I think people in Margate somehow think that if they combined with Ventnor or sent their kids to Ventnor (and some even apply this to AC High) they would be compromising their kids’ education. Margate schools are small, class sizes are small, it’s a unique and perhaps enviable situation maybe more akin to a private school. But the schools lack diversity and in my opinion create an insular environment that is the opposite of a good and world-expanding education.
Amy Rosenberg: It frustrates me also that people assume Margate schools are better than other schools, or Margate kids are smarter than kids at other schools, or more successful, or get into better schools. It’s just not true. The same is true about the decision making process when people chose to send their kids to Ocean City or Holy Spirit rather than Atlantic City. Your (Margate) schools are not at all diverse tho. Ventnor schools are wonderfully multi- cultural.
John Pitts:Â They will couch their arguments around efficiency and talk of high per student spending, but ultimately the second homeowners that rail against Margate Schools only want to pay less in taxes and, for the most part, don’t care what they have to do to get there
Howard Vance had a question: how much lower did taxes become after they closed Union Ave school in Margate?
Christine Steelman-Eden: Taxes DID NOT go down when Union Ave closed.
Howard Vance: didn’t at my house either
Amy Rosenberg is completely incorrect asserting “just as good as Margate”. Ask parents and teachers who have firsthand knowledge… Ventnor schools are a disaster, very little learning takes place in those classrooms.
Just look at the ranks, test scores, etc.
For example – Schooldigger – Ventnor #389/610, Margate 95/610
Ventnor Elementary Reading/Math Proficiency: 52%
Margate Ross School Reading/Math Proficiency 82%
Look at the home values.
Median $250k Ventnor, $470K Margate
21.3% of Margate Taxes go to schools. 35.7% of Ventnor taxes go to schools. The average across all NJ towns is 52.8%. Margate should be spending more on education. The schools are a draw, they keep young, working families living here year round.
Personally I chose Margate so my kids could go to Margate schools. I could have bought a much, much, bigger and newer house in Ventnor for the same price or less. I will be selling if a merger occurs and relocating to Ocean City – I know many families will do the same.
Margate will be just like every other summer-only shore town, desolate in the winter. Maybe for Janice Leaman and Neil Shander, who live in PA and have vacation homes in Margate, this isn’t a concern, they aren’t around in the winter anyway, supporting the local economy… they live in Wynnewood and Wayne, respectively. They just want to save on taxes without realizing they would crush their own property values.
My name and quoted comments from a FB posting were made by someone else under my name and deleted since then.
I think it is time to cut the budget
In margate school or merge with ventnor on services.
Ps- former school board member
For 8 years in Atlantic City.
Irene Braverman-Ruzzo
According to May 2017 NJ.com article average per student cost in the state is about $20k/student with a rang of $10k low to $60k high. Highest per student costs are Avalon and Stone Harbor with Brigantine and 2 Wildwoods on list as well. SO lets just run a scenario where we are able to just chop Margate per student cost down to the state average. $12k multiply that by the 350 students it would save the city $4.2mil on cost. ASSUMING THE CONSOLIDATION BRINGS NO NEW CHARGES. Divide that by the 3156 households (assuming no business taxes go into the education fold) and each household would save about $1330 a year in taxes. That is assuming the biggest saving applied. It is not bringing into consideration the effect in time on property values.
My point being the delta attained in a perfect scenario is not monumental. Further if you inject a realistic delta the effect would be negligible. SO why change what is one of many pillars of this great city.
If school merges I will definitively leave Margate. The small classes and top notch education my children get there are invaluable. Ventnor school is a total disaster. The only ones who want to merge are summer people who don’t live here and don’t care. Well, they are not considering that the value of their homes are going to go down drastically. And for the savings, keep on hoping, they will never cut their taxes down, if not, look what happened with Haverford.
I placed a carefully crafted scenario as to how the Margate and Ventnor Schools could merge in an article in the Downbeach Current (November – December 2021 ).
As a former Superintendent in Ventnor and long time resident of Margate, I outlined many reasons – academic, fiscal, facility usage, as well as the benefits that student diversity would reap.
I believe that the time to merge these two fine districts has come. The name – The Downbeach School District.
Trenton, Gov Murphy and Steve Sweeney wanted the Atlantic City School District to swallow up Margate, Ventnor and Brigantine.
Sounds like it is about time