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FREEHOLD Brianna Reillys classroom has nowalls and no door. Bookshelves buffer her class fromthe 500 other students crammed into the schools in-structional space.

But noise easily transcends the makeshift class-rooms.

I do get a little distracted from my school work,said Brianna, a fifth-grader at Freehold Learning Cen-ter. She says she can hear nearby teachers explaininglessons or students transitioning between classes andlunch.

Freehold public schools are bursting at the seams.More than 1,600 students are enrolled in the districtsthree schools about 500 over capacity. But the dis-trict twice failed to pass a $32.9 million bond referen-dum to build 23 additional classrooms and add lockerrooms, a cafeteria and more gym space.

Schools Superintendent Rocco Tomazic says thecommunitys rejection of the bond is widening dispar-ities among his mostly minority students and strip-ping them of an adequate education. About 70 percentof Freehold students are Hispanic and more thanthree-quarters qualify for free and reduced lunch.

Theres a human cost, theres a kids cost, Tomaz-ic said.

Immigrants, state funding

The problem, community and school leaders say, istwo-fold: lack of representation for minority studentsand inequitable state funding.

Most of the parents at the schools are not citizensand cannot vote. In this town of 12,000, more than athird were born in a foreign country, according to the2010 census, with nearly half not speaking English athome. A quarter of the town is under the age of 18. Ofthe 5,300 registered voters in town, just 611 cast bal-lots in December funding referendum. It failed, 370 to241.

The state this year held school funding flat, mean-ing districts that gained students did not receive theirfair share of dollars to account for growth. Tomazicsays he lost out on $6 million in state aid.

Its a sad situation, said Frank Argote-Freyre,

Studentssqueezed in battle on funding PRESS STAFF REPORT @ASBURYPARKPRESS

TOM SPADER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Hundreds of students work in a large open room separatedby half walls at the Freehold Learning Center.

See SCHOOLS, Page 10A

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