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Seaside Park school will close, send students to Toms River
Staff Report, ocgazette.com, 5/16/2010
In a 3-2 vote, The Seaside Park Board of Education has decided to close its doors, and to send the remaining 60 or so students to Toms River Regional Schools on a tuition basis.
The vote was made Monday May 10th, after a lengthy and divided discussion in the public session.
With current costs approaching $40,000 per pupil, the move to Toms River will save nearly 75%, with tuition there just a bit higher than $10,000.
Michael J. Ritacco, who is the Superintendent of Toms River Regional, has also been the Superintendent in Seaside Park since July 2009. Mr. Ritacco also is the Chief School Administrator in Seaside Heights, but that district is not in the same situation as Seaside Park, and its school, with 219 students, will remain open.
The K-6 Seaside Park Elementary School has been in existence for over a century, establishing itself shortly after the Borough was established in 1898.
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Heroin bust just latest in string of Seaside Park controversies
Staff Report, Ocean County Gazette 4-26-2010
A recent heroin bust at an Ocean Terrace Motel in Seaside Park is just the latest in a string of episodes that have disquieted the once-quiet Borough.
Just last month, two high-profile events rocked Seaside Park within days of each other. On Wednesday, March 17th, a man and a woman were killed in a motor vehicle accident at ‘J’ Street and the Bay, after the car they were driving in plunged into the Barnegat. A few days after that, on Saturday March 20th, Seaside Park Mayor Thomas Connors, his adult son and daughter were all arrested outside a Seaside Heights nightclub following an altercation inside the club, and then outside with police.
Now, the action has shifted to the Desert Palm Inn, where five people were recently hauled in from a motel room that was suspected of being a drug distribution center.
Facing the most serious charges in the bust, said to be a month-long investigation by the local police department, is Jesslyn Donahue, 27, whose address was listed as that of the Seaside Park motel room. Charges against Donahue include not only possession of heroin and needles, but also of the distribution of the dangerous and highly-addictive drug, for which she was lodged in Ocean County Jail with a bail of $75,000.
Arrested and subsequently released for possession charges only were Denise Good, 31, of Seaside Heights, Margaret Blackwell, 24, of Beachwood, and Karen Durando , 43, of Point Pleasant.
A fifth person, Tamous Jacob, 57, of Seaside Heights was also arrested for an outstanding arrest warrant out of New Brunswick.
Sources say Room 127 was well stocked with drugs, including 81 stacks of heroin, an undetermined amount of crack cocaine, and various items of paraphernalia, including pipes, needles, scales, and $515.00 cash.
The bust came shortly after 11:00 p.m. on Friday, April 23rd, one day after FBI agents happened to also be in Seaside Park, searching a much more posh locale: the ocean-side home of embattled Toms River Schools Superintendent Michael Ritacco, who is currently under a federal investigation.
