It’s back to school for students and a fresh start for families, but for several school districts in New Jersey, the start of the year has been a grueling process trying to balance their budgets.
They were districts like Jackson Township, which already had to close an elementary school last year to close a budget hole and faced a deficit again this year.
“We had an $11 million shortfall in our budget that needed to be filled, so what we have done is close a school, restructured the district, and we are currently selling a school,” said superintendent Nicole Pormilli. “We closed a middle school, and now we have restructured where we have one high school with about 2,300 students. And then we have one middle school with about 1,050 students.
She said the district reduced more than 100 positions in this current budget, although did not have to eliminate any programs.
The Camden school district is another, dealing with a $91 million deficit this year. That led outgoing superintendent Katrina McCombs cutting nearly 120 staff positions before her departure.
“She just finished her time as superintendent by laying of 117 staff,” said Ronsha Dickerson, executive director of the Camden Parents and Student Union. “Now in that staff, my lord, she laid off all the supports that we have inside the school. So climate and culture, family outreach coordinators, attendance officers, security officers, they’re all gone.”
It’s not all bad news, and leaders in some districts that have faced year-over-year budget shortfalls said they are finally feeling right-sized — even though they got there on the backs of their taxpayers. Plainfield saw an 18% increase in local taxes, half of what it needed to completely close its budget gap.
“When you’re talking about any tax increase, that makes for difficult conversations in the community,” said superintendent Rashon Hasan. “Fortunately, it did not result in any reductions of staff. But what it did mean is some facility projects that we intended to execute in the 2025-26 school year had to be deferred.”
Taxpayers in Toms River have seen a 22% increase over two years.
“Which is close to $35 million to our taxpayers in two years. That’s a lot of money,” said Toms River superintendent Michael Citta. “We have not had to lay off, but we’ve had to scale back through attrition. So in order to balance this budget and keep the impact as low as possible, we’re working a million and a half dollars less in salaries just in the administration and business office.
“For the first time we’re feeling very positive that we can focus on kids and programs and supports,” he said. “Even though it’s bare bones, I feel like I’m not filling in a hole anymore.”
