Two small elementary school districts in New Jersey’s southernmost county are exploring a possible merger, local officials said.
Cape May City and West Cape May recently received a $50,000 grant from the state Department of Community Affairs, which oversees a program providing financial incentives for school districts to study consolidations.
Cape May City and West Cape May each operate a single elementary school for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
Together, they enroll 241 students — 158 at Cape May City Elementary School and 83 at West Cape May Elementary School.
The merger study grant program was created under a 2022 law aimed at encouraging consolidations. New Jersey, which is home to around 600 school districts, has few regionalized districts compared to many other states. Some have criticized the state for having too many costly local school districts that duplicate services and help drive up property taxes.
In Cape May, approximately two-thirds of students live at the U.S. Coast Guard training center. That is one of several issues that will be explored in the merger discussion, Zachary Palombo, who is the shared superintendent of both districts, told NJ Advance Media.
Students in grades 7 to 12 in both districts already attend the Lower Cape May Regional School District.
Palombo said the review might examine closing one of Cape May and West Cape May’s elementary schools. But a more likely recommendation would be to keep the current schools and establish a primary school for younger students.
A consultant will be chosen by November, with a tentative plan to submit recommendations by June 1, local officials said.
“The plan should assess our current situation as two separate school districts, potential impacts that would occur if a merger were to take place, and make recommendations for the future of both school districts,” according to an outline posted online by the districts Sept. 5.
Consolidation is not a new topic in Cape May City and West Cape May. The school districts have numerous shared services agreements. West Cape May has been sending pre-K students to Cape May City for the past three years, Palombo told NJ Advance Media.
Palombo is already the superintendent of both districts. They split the cost of his $143,000 annual salary. He is also principal and special education director at the district’s two schools.
The districts also share a business administrator and teachers in English, music, art, sign language and STEM. They also share a speech pathologist, Palombo said.
However, a merger would involve resolving several issues. Teachers in the two districts are represented by separate unions, he said.
Cape May City’s school district received $1.2 million in federal impact aid last year because families on the U.S. Coast Guard base do not pay local school taxes. If the districts are combined, Cape May City’s share of the impact aid would be reduced and taxes in the city might rise, Palombo said.
Transportation is another factor. While the Coast Guard provides a bus for students living on the base, neither district offers buses to other students, Palombo said.
That’s because all students live within two miles of their schools and state law does not require free bus transportation.
That could change if students are sent to schools farther from home under a merger of the two districts.
Another factor in a possible merger could be the state’s Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, which enables eligible students to attend schools in districts where they do not live.
Approximately 40 of West Cape May’s 83 students are in the program. Another 12 are at Cape May City.
The study might explore whether going from two schools to one, or realigning grades, might reduce the population of students in the choice program.
“There’s a demand from parents that want a small school setting,” Palombo said.
Other New Jersey districts have studied mergers.
In Monmouth County, the elementary school districts in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands were dissolved in July 2024. They joined the K-12 Henry Hudson Regional School District, which had previously served middle school and high school students from both municipalities.
The merger was approved by voters in Atlantic Highlands and Highlands in September 2023. It was the first school district merger in New Jersey since 2013, when voters in Hunterdon County approved merging four school districts into the South Hunterdon Regional School District, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association.
There was a different outcome in April 2024, when voters in Seaside Heights rejected a ballot question that would have dissolved the town’s small elementary school district by authorizing a merger with the much larger Toms River Regional School District.
