JACKSON – The School Board will be seeking another loan from the New Jersey Department of Education in order to support its tentative budget for the 2024-2025 school year.
For every district, the state calculates what would be the necessary funding level to provide a “thorough and efficient education” to pupils in that district. This is what is referred to as the Adequacy Budget.
The school district is $23,783,329 below the adequacy budget which is why it is requesting a $30,940,062 loan.
Last year’s approved budget was $169,506,832. The total for this year’s tentative budget currently stands at $178,223,867. This marks an increase of $8,717,035, which is a percentage change of 5.14%.
The general fund tax levy for the tentative budget would be $95,984,833, an increase of $2,710,414 from the previous year. Assuming that the district would be eligible for a Health Insurance Cap Waiver of $844,926, it represents a change of 2.91%.
Superintendent Nicole Pormilli said the district would “continue to put our students first and ensure they have strong, enriching instruction and programs. We will not submit a budget to the state with significant cuts – because doing so would sacrifice its ability to provide a thorough and efficient education for township students.”
Assistant Superintendent Dan Baginski provided a recap of last year’s budget stating there was a loss of 64 positions with most through attrition or elimination (total 215 since 2018), a reduction in staff in all areas, (administrative, certified, non-certified), reduction in school-based budgets, loss of capital projects (except safety-related) and technology reductions.
There were also increases in class sizes, with kindergarten classes averaging 20 pupils, and grades 1 through 5 averaging 26 students per classroom. Grades 6 through 8 have an average class size of 28 while grades 9 through 12 have between 25 and 30 students occupying a classroom.
There was a reduction of some extra-curricular activities including the elimination of transportation to practices for off-site sports, reduction in assistant coaches which allowed for the continuation of the sport itself, reduction of two district sports (ice hockey which had low participation numbers) and gymnastics although Jackson gymnasts can still participate in state competitions, he explained.
“These cuts were still not enough to reach a balanced budget,” Baginski said. “We would not approve a budget that cut more than we already had. Doing so would prohibit us from providing an efficient education for our students.”
This led the district to go to the DOE for the $10.2 million loan to balance the 2023-2024 budget, Baginski added. “The district will need to work the 10-year loan payment into our budget each year. The tax levy cap remains – meaning the loan payment will impact your tax rate.”
By law the district must continue to operate under a 2% tax levy cap, in other words they can’t raise taxes more than 2%. This allows for no mechanism to save necessary programs and positions in the face of devastating cuts, officials said. The district had hoped that S-2 would not remain in place for the 2024-2025 budget year and a more balanced funding formula for the state would be developed.
Another hope was that state aid would actually increase for English Language Learners, special education, transportation
and security but none of that happened. Baginski said, “we acted to seek a loan to protect the education of our students.”
The school district presented a special question on the November 7, 2023 ballot to raise an additional $4,035,000 for the general fund for 2023-2024. These taxes would have been used exclusively to add additional staff – many of whom would be addressing mental health issues of students. The question was defeated by the voters with 6,262 voting no and 3,484 voting yes. The district therefore could not add those positions and class sizes were not lowered.
“We applied for and received $2.1 million in stabilization aid, but we are required to apply that directly to the deficit. This means we cannot use these funds for students – they will be used to lower the amount of the loan we are taking,” Baginski said.
Baginski added, “we met several times with the Department of Education’s Office of Division of Finance and Business Services and have provided monthly budget updates. We have been informed that we should receive the loan in April – as we will not be able to pay our bills in May.”
Concerning the 2024-2025 budget, there was no change in S-2, no change in the legislature to allow districts to go above 2% tax levy cap and no change in the aid received for the growing areas of transportation, security, ELL, or special education, he said.
The district was hit with an unpleasant surprise learning, that “instead of losing what we were told would be $806,460 in aid – we learned this month that we would be losing $4,459,769,” Baginski said. Overall, $22.5 million has been lost in state aid in the last seven years.
Pormilli noted that the township school district has been in the top 10 of “The State’s Biggest Losers” by total aid reduction. If Jackson’s K-12 State Aid had remained frozen at the start of S-2 the school district would have received an additional $83,170,201 during those seven years.
The state’s formula has never been made public, despite lawsuits. One factor in declining aid is that certain districts are having declining enrollment.
If Jackson’s State Aid had been reduced “at the same proportion our K-12 enrollment decreased, we would have received an additional $52,896,767 during those seven years,” Pormilli added.
The district will be reviewing every line item in the budget, all revenue projections and consider any other possible aid that might be available through upcoming legislative action as well as continue efforts to educate decision-makers about the district’s unique circumstances.
Pormilli said that the district would also work to lower the loan amount without sacrificing program for students.
The public hearing on the proposed 2024-2025 budget will be presented at 6:30 p.m. during the Board’s April 24 meeting at Jackson Memorial High School.
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