Members of the public wore red to protest cuts in the Evesham Township school district preliminary budget.
Facing a room full of protesting parents and students, the Evesham Township school board on Monday in a close decision voted 5-4 to pass the $85.7 million preliminary district budget that school officials said will eliminate 83 positions — 10% of the district staff — in elementary and middle schools and also cut back on transportation.
"Shame" and "disgusting" some in the audience shouted, with others leaving the meeting before it was completed.
"No combination of words...can be said that can take away the pain and the anger from where we are," Superintendent Justin Smith said at the meeting. He was heckled multiple times during the budget presentation.
The preliminary 2025-26 budget totals $85,663,476, which is $2.4 million or nearly 3% percent less than the current school year budget, according to Jonathan Yates, business administrator and school board secretary.
Yates said that annual school property taxes will increase $180.33 on a Township home assessed at the municipal average. He had neither the average assessment nor the percentage tax increase when asked after the meeting by 70and73.com.
During the meeting, Marisa DiTore, Evesham Township Education Association secretary, said that 478 of 494 staff members (97%) who participated in a vote said they had "no confidence" in Smith and wanted him to resign or take corrective action, which drew applause from the audience.
"The leadership of Dr. Smith has demonstrated a persistent lack of transparency and decision-making processes (and) failing to provide clear and timely communication," DiTore said. "Smith has systematically dismantled a once-thriving school district, leading to a decline in educational quality, staff morale and community trust."
Smith did not respond to the vote.
The increase in class sizes seemed to concern many of the parents, teachers and students who spoke out against the budget.
Seventh grader Natalie Rogers tells the Board of Education her concerns about the Evesham Township School District’s preliminary 2025-26 budget.
"Our teachers are the foundation of our school," said Natalie Rogers, a district seventh-grade student. "Listen to them when they say student grades will go down when they cram us like sardines into a classroom."
Parent Colleen Ellis told the board: "This budget is so short-sighted and the overcrowding that it will cause is so detrimental to our students. …If you continue with these increased classes, you are cheating kids with special learning needs out of their right to learn in the least-restrictive environment for them.”
Other members of the public spoke about what they called money-saving suggestions being ignored, and Smith said he would discuss some of those suggestions with the district liaison committee at its next meeting. Other commenters said that no administrators were cut from the budget and that Smith worked harder to establish full-day kindergarten than to save jobs. Smith did not respond to these allegations.
The five school board members who voted for the preliminary budget — David Bock, Aiden DeMarsey, Tracy Fox, Aneesh Kanthan and William Thompson — did not discuss their votes. Three of the four who voted against the preliminary budget did. Members voting against the budget were Jaron Brown, Terri Butrymowicz, Janis Knoll and Kevin Peelman.
"We received a brief summary on a couple of items from Dr. Smith on Thursday night, but it was in no way a full report on all that is up for decision," Butrymowicz said. "I will need more time and more information to give proper due diligence to these district-changing, life-altering decisions that the community trusts us to make."
Smith said some of the budget cuts announced earlier this year are still in effect. Cuts include eliminating all elementary school extracurriculars, increasing elementary school and middle school class sizes, establishing more walking routes to school, creating a sixth middle school class and eliminating the student enrichment program known as Team Time, outsourcing the transportation department and terminating health benefits for paraprofessionals with fewer than 20 years of service in the district.
