Robbins called the funding cuts “a disgrace.”
Tabernacle Township School District Superintendent Glenn Robbins railed against funding cuts for his district at the board of education meeting last Monday night.
Aid from the state Department of Education is down 2 percent from what the district initially had planned in its April budget, according to School Business Administrator Jessica DeWysockie. This year’s total state aid is $5,473,344, according to the NJDOE’s website. According to Robbins, the reduction in state aid was the result of the state’s decision to change the “funding formula” for public schools.
“I am very disappointed in the way the state went forward with this,” Robbins said at the meeting. “[Our students] are the second hardest hit in all of Burlington County, and I think that’s bad. A disgrace. I hate to say the word, but that’s the truth.”
However, board member Julia Sailer saw it differently: “Well, I think that’s the checks and balances here,” she said. “We have been very fortunate. We have an excellent district. There are other districts that pale in comparison and need the support, so this year we’re just going to have to make adjustments.”
The board will meet on Wednesday, July 26 to approve the new budget.
In other news:
• Robbins highlighted the work of three Olson Middle School students, Emma Lee Pesotski, Tess Strittmatter and Patrick Lee, who presented a PowerPoint on constructive social media use in education at the National Principal’s Conference, which was held July 9–11 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
“I learned several new apps that they presented,” said Robbins, who cited photography app VSCO and group video chat app Houseparty as the two main apps he learned about from the presentation. “They were showing a lot of different things that we could utilize and help us connect more with the student body … the apps they presented were fantastic, and it opened up the eyes of the parents in the room and it definitely opened up the eyes of the administrators in the room.”
Robbins said just fewer than 100 people watched the presentation at the conference.
• The board approved the hiring of Theresa Amoriello to the position of special education teacher and reassignment from special education teacher to school counselor for Bridget Bauer.
Amoriello was also approved to be the assistant girls softball coach and co-drama coach for the 2017–18 school year.
