Vol. 16 - No. 26
In This Week’s Edition
THE TOMS RIVER
TIMES
FOR BREAKING NEWS
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Pages 10-12.
Coloring Contest Page 7.
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News
My Hearing Is Pretty Good, Except When I Go To The Movies
Page 16.
Dear Pharmacist Three Convincing Reasons To Eat More Oatmeal
Page 17.
Dear Joel Page 18.
Inside The Law Page 19.
Business Directory Page 21.
Classifieds Page 22.
–Photo by Kimberly Bosco The animal shelter houses animals of all shapes and sizes, ready and waiting for a loving home.
Toms River: Preschool Expansion Grant Would Cost District Money
By Chris Lundy TOMS RIVER - The Toms River School District declined to apply for a preschool expansion grant, stating it would cost additional money in the long run. Several local districts applied for the grant, and received it. As a result, they expanded their preschool programs to have more full-day classes. At a recent Board of Education meeting, board members declined to pursue the grant. Currently, Toms River has some full-day preschool handicapped programs, and nine half-day preschool handicapped programs,
Toms River Schools Aid Request Denied
By Kimberly Bosco OCEAN COUNTY – While you may know where you can find an animal for adoption near you, you may not be aware of how many choices you really have. Volunteers at local shelters and rescues confirm that what you see may not be what you get, in terms of numbers. When it comes down to it, state statistics on the number of adoptable animals leave a lot to be desired. Local animal shelters and organizations are taking part in a nationwide initiative to provide accurate data on rescue animals. As Friends of the Southern Ocean County Animal Shelter (FOSOCAS) explains it, the way the state of New Jersey defines “rescues” leaves them out of the
By Chris Lundy TOMS RIVER – The school district’s request for their state aid to be returned has been denied, officials reported. The state provides all school districts with a portion of funding. This year, the funding formula was changed based, the state said, on enrollment. Districts with declining enrollment, such as Toms River, saw declining aid. This left a $2,357,955 hole for this school year. District officials used surplus and maintenance reserve funds to patch the hole for the 2018-2019 school year. So, there was no educational impact this year. However, next year, the cut will be deeper, and there will be less in surplus. The cuts will be more and more every year, culminating in Toms River getting a third less aid six years from now than
(Shelter - See Page 4)
(Denied - See Page 9)
COUNTY SETS RECORD ELECTION RESULTS
business administrator William Doering said. If the district won the grant, the part time programs would become full time. Each program would require teachers and paraprofessionals, which would cost an estimated $300,000-$400,000 a year, he said. Additionally, the state is providing $12,500 per child, and Doering said the district would be paying $2,500 extra per child that the state isn’t covering. If 1,000 preschool students are eligible, it would cost the district $2.5 million. This is against the backdrop (Preschool - See Page 9)
| November 24, 2018
By Chris Lundy OCEAN COU NTY – More than half of registered voters in Ocean County went to the polls on Nov. 6, the most in any midter m election, officials said. County Clerk Scott Colabella said it was a historic election in terms of turnout. “I have never seen this kind of volume in a midterm election,” he said. “ It w a s l i k e a p r e s i d e n t i a l election.”
To put it in perspective, there were 381,491 registered voters for the 2014 midterms, he said. Of these, 37.92 percent turned out. In 2018, there were 408,860 registered vot e r s. Of t he s e, 225,392 - or 55.13 p e r c e nt - vot e d . This doesn’t even include the provisional ballots, which were still being counted when this article was being published. Colabella suggested that the rea son for t he i ncrea se is a (Election - See Page 6)
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