JACKSON – Board of Education members and the school administration received some good news lately regarding receiving a five-year grant that will cover the cost of mental health issues.
At a recent Board meeting Superintendent Nicole Pormilli said, “during budget season there was a grant for mental health and we learned that our application was accepted and awarded. The district is fortunate enough to have a mental health training grant that is going to provide more school counseling to our students and will help with mental health issues.”
She thanked everyone who was responsible for getting the school district the grant. “It was an incredible application. Our students will benefit tremendously from that grant.”
ARP Funds
Assistant Superintendent Robert Rotante reported on a state requirement still in place regarding the district’s meeting certain health requirements involving the COVID-19 pandemic. “In summary the district really showed successfully during the 2022-23 school year that we were safe to return with no requirements of masking or social distancing or contact tracing and no requirements of forced quarantining of our students.”
“Students and staff that chose to wear masks were supported throughout the district and there were no incidents related to that. The district is still meeting all required cleaning procedures as far as cleaning all of our facilities, bathrooms, floors, hallways and we are encouraging all of our students to maintain proper handwashing etiquette, healthy eating habits, healthy living habits,” Rotante added.
Rotante said that funds from the state concerning the pandemic (federal American Rescue Plan, ARP) “were utilized to maintain positions such as guidance counselors, teachers, nurses, computer technicians and custodians.”
Funds were also used to provide after school programming such as math and literacy and after school sports programs. “The remaining ARP funds will be used during the 2023-24 school year and will be used for some of those critical staffing areas as well as for our students as well,” he said.
Childcare Academy
The superintendent reminded residents that Childcare Academy registration for the fall was open. It will close on August 3. “Please get your registration in quickly it does fill up quickly.” For information call 732-833-4677 or visit the website jacksonchildcareacademy.com.
The program opens at 7 a.m. in the all purpose room or a designated classroom. All programs finish at 6 p.m.
Pormilli added, “we also have optional summer work assignments listed on our district website. There are plenty of online resources. The only ones required are for AP (Advanced Placement) students. The other ones are optional.”
Loan Status
The School District noted the loss of 64 positions through its adopted spending plan and the school district asked the NJ Department of Education for $10.2 million in assistance to balance its budget for 2023-2024.
Board President Guiseppi Palmeri reported on the status of the loan to support its nearly $166 million budget, contingent on the district being approved for that loan.
Palmeri previously said, “even with this loan we had to make hard decisions for the 2023-24 school year by cutting over $5 million from our budget.”
At June’s meeting he stated, “we have no new information to report other than Mrs. Pormilli and (Business Administrator) Michelle Richardson continually reach out to the County Superintendent on the status of our loan. There has been no confirmation on the status of our loan. They will continue to reach out for information.”
Pormilli said the requested loan has been recommended to be at a zero-percent interest rate for 10 years and that the district would need to work “the 10-year loan payment into our budget each year; given the 2% cap on the tax levy, the loan payment will not impact a Jackson resident’s tax rate.”
She said, “we have met with the Executive County Superintendent multiple times, going through each line item in the budget. He has communicated to the Department of Education that the district has been fiscally responsible.”
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