After two months of holding Committee of the Whole sessions for new board members to become acquainted with committees, the Cherry Hill board of education decided at its March 8 session to return to committee meetings beginning in April.
The consensus was that by returning to committee sessions, board members would have more time for discussions while also mindful of the time, given that previous Committee of the Whole meetings have averaged four hours. Board members also noted that it was difficult to hold discussions along the length of the table.
Moving forward, Business and Facilities, Policy and Legislation and Curriculum and Instructions departments will return to committee meetings, but Human Resources and Strategic Planning will continue during the first meeting of the month.
The board of education also began discussions on elementary-school districting following middle-school redistricting plans.
““I think this is a real opportunity to look at the shortcomings of option two and to make corrections at the elementary level in terms of feeding into the middle schools,” said board member Dr. Ben Rood. “ … What I would like to see is elementary-school redistricting work to improve the numbers issue with students at each of the elementary schools.”
Other priorities raised included having geographic lines make sense; keeping class sizes small; making education equitable, with more evenly distributed special classes like special education programs and English Language learner programs; making bus routes more efficient; and minimizing disruption.
While board Vice President Miriam Stern, board member Joel Mayer and Cherry Hill West student representative Kevin Salvatorelli noted the importance of diverse programs, board member Corrien Elmore-Stratton and Cherry Hill East student representative Ariana Santiago Ramos acknowledged that it may not be possible to have that with geographic redistricting.
“I think it would be very difficult for us to try to make it be equitable in culture, but there might be the possibility to at least make it equitable by distance and location just a tiny bit, to where the schools are,” Elmore-Stratton said.
While no actions were taken during the meeting, the discussion will continue over the next few months. The redistricting is set to take place in the 2023-2024 school year alongside the middle school redistricting.
In light of mask mandates being lifted, the board also discussed formalizing the ability of board members to attend meetings remotely, and whether any restrictions should be considered with the policy. While all the board members were in agreement that they should be able to attend remotely, they discussed potential limitations on how often or when it would be appropriate to attend remotely. The potential policy will continue to be discussed by the Policy and Legislation Committee.
With budget season right around the corner, Assistant Superintendent and Business Secretary Lynn Shugars gave a brief overview on what this year’s budget will look like. She noted that the district is still waiting to hear about state aid to factor into things. Shugars said at the March 8 meeting that the district was looking at an cost increase for health benefits, the effects of inflation and rebidding of bus routes.
To close the gap between revenues and expenses, the board looked for places to cut costs using banked cap, a taxing authority they have because last year’s increase fell below the 2 percent budget cap. More information will be available at the March 15 meeting.
In financial news, Laurie Deitch, chair of the Cherry Hill Fair Funding Committee, discussed Cherry Hill being underfunded for the last 10 years. She explained that one of the problems at the outset of the 2008 School Funding Reform Act (SFRA) was that New Jersey couldn’t fully fund the formula. While the district was calculated to need $28 million, state aid was capped at $16.5 million.
Deitch said another problem was that a group of 31 Abbott districts was overfunded and received 55 percent of the state Department of Education’s aid, while the 568 non-Abbott districts fought for the remaining 45 percent. Because the school district has missed out on an estimated $170 million over the years, taxpayers shoulder 91 percent of the district’s budget when it should be lower.
“That’s why we’re looking at a bond to address the things our district has put off updating,” Deitch said. “Our children deserve better.”
The hope is to better educate residents about the need for the bond referendum and continue to push for fair funding. To learn more about fair funding, visit https://fairfunding.wixsite.com/fairfundingchps.
In other news:
- Michael Holt, C.P.A., R.M.A., P.S.A. of Holt McNally & Associates, Inc. announced that the audit and annual financial report “passed with flying colors.”
- The board added a town hall for Tuesday, March 29, to discuss later start times. The location has yet to be determined.
The next regular board meeting will be on March 22 at 6:30 p.m.
