Cherry Hill's state aid dollar reduction between this year and next year would be the second-highest in the state. Lenape's would be third. Only Long Branch, with a $10 million cut, would be higher.
School district representatives told a state Senate committee on Thursday that, when budgeting each year for state education aid, it all comes down to: It's anybody's guess.
Although Gov. Phil Murphy in late February touted "fully funded" state aid to school districts, the volatility of the amount of the aid each year creates budgetary chaos in some districts that can result in deep staff and program cuts.
"This was obviously earth shattering for us. We were not expecting this," Kara L. Huber, business administrator for the Lenape Regional High School District, told the Senate Education Committee of the impact of the nearly 20%, or $4.69 million, cut in state aid announced for Lenape's coming budget year.
Kwame R. Morton, the acting superintendent for the Cherry Hill district had a similar message for the committee: "Facing the financial challenges brought on by the deficit, we find ourselves in a difficult position," he said.
Morton told how Cherry Hill voters approved a $363-million bond referendum — the largest in state history — for facilities in November and how that bond would increase property taxes by $386 a year for the average home.
"We must now approach the taxpayers of Cherry Hill once more, to request an increase in taxes beyond what has already been generously agreed upon via the bond referendum," he said of the impact of a 19%, or $6.9 million, reduction in state aid between this year and next.
"At a minimum we were expecting to at least be flat," Morton told the legislators.
The other district in the 70and73.com area hit hard by the aid list released with Murphy's announcement was Voorhees, where a 17% reduction in state aid equals $1.05 million.
Districts are facing deadlines to submit their budgets for the coming school year, but now must adjust expected revenues. If an increase in property taxes cannot cover the aid loss, districts expect staff cuts, larger class sizes and fewer student extracurricular activities.
Lenape's superintendent, Carol L. Birnbohm, told her district in a message of "the devastating news that our school funding for the 2024-2025 year will be gutted beyond what was ever anticipated."
"With uncontrollable factors like increased healthcare costs, transportation, energy, inflation, and persistent underfunding of special education, our staff was already preparing for a budget hole in the millions," she wrote. "Now with this unprecedented reduction in state aid in one year, this canyon-sized hole demands that we reevaluate our plans and make deeper cuts that will inevitably impact programs and staffing."
Among all New Jersey school districts, funding would increase for 423, would decrease for 140 and remain flat for 15, according to a 70and73.com analysis of the state data. State aid for all districts totals $11.66 million, up 8% from this year.
READ MORE:Â Gov. Murphy touts 'fully funded' state aid for school districts, but Cherry Hill, others would decrease.
Some of the districts challenged the state's measure of "perceived wealth" of a district based on its equalized property values.
Jesse Young, legislative advocate at the New Jersey School Boards Association, told committee members that four years ago, 21 districts in New Jersey saw their equalized valuation increase by 10% or more.
Last year, he said, valuation increased by 10% in 322 districts.
"That significant impact of increasing property values driving up the local share, and in turn driving down equalization aid, (is something) we're seeing more spread and more significant around the state," he said.
Learning last minute of deep cuts in state aid and having to turn a budget in to the state about two weeks later is "crazy," one district official told the committee.
That chaos was apparent in this week's preliminary budget presentation at the Cherry Hill Board of Education meeting.
As many as 60 positions out of a total of 1,786 employees — about 3% — of the Cherry Hill district and an unspecified number of extracurricular activities may be cut if sources are not found to fill the district's potential $12 million difference between spending and revenue in the draft 2024-25 budget, Assistant Superintendent Lynn Shugars said at Tuesday's meeting.
