Merger discussions with the Sea Isle City School District in 2008 ended after the Ocean City district indicated that it did want to accept Sea Isle City's tenured teachers, which it would be required to do under state law. Sea Isle City currently spends $35,000 per student and hoped to see savings through the merger, even after adding in transportation costs.Editorial. "Merging schools / Law makes it hard", The Press of Atlantic City, June 30, 2008. The Sea Isle City district graduated its last eighth grade class in June 2009 and with the 2010-11 school year, students from Sea Isle City started attending the Ocean City schools starting in fifth grade.Ianieri, Brian. "Sea Isle sends off eight in city's last graduation", The Press of Atlantic City, June 19, 2009. Accessed August 4, 2011. "Facing declining enrollment and fewer children left in the seasonal city, the school board in March made a controversial decision to send fifth-grade to eighth-grade students to the Ocean City School District in the fall. Sea Isle's school will retain pre-Kindergarten through fourth-grade classes. The city's high school-age students have long attended Ocean City High School." As of June 30, 2012, Sea Isle City School District no longer operates, in the face of an order by the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education that was based on declining enrollment and budgetary issues. All students from Sea Isle City in public school for pre-Kindergarten through twelfth grade attend Ocean City Public Schools.Rudloff, Mary. "State orders Sea Isle City school to close; Sea Isle, Ocean City school boards vote not to stand in the way; students to come to Ocean City", Ocean City Sentinel, May 2, 2012. Accessed July 22, 2014. "By voting to not oppose the Order to Show Cause, both school districts agree to expand the send-receive relationship, sending Sea Isle's students in kindergarten through third grade to Ocean City beginning in September. Sea Isle's students in grades four through 12 already attend school in Ocean City."
