The Tabernacle Board of Education approved the 2019-2020 budget at its latest meeting, bringing immediate and tangible cuts to the community by letting go of a school principal and multiple teachers in the process.
The school will replace current Tabernacle Elementary School full-time principal Gerald Paterson with an assistant principal.
The board also approved the termination of Tabernacle Elementary School teachers Leigh Ann Peter, gifted and talented teacher; Danielle Hare, special education teacher; and Amy Brewin, special education teacher.
The school will also see cuts to the art department, adjusting two full-time art positions by changing one of them to a part-time position.
“A lot of us are trying to figure this out as we go because this is all new to us, this is a monstrous thing that the state is doing to us,” said Superintendent Glenn Robbins.
The board put the blame on a loss of state aid. The new budget says the district will lose $312,893 in state aid, a 5.87 percent decrease from the current year, which makes total state aid $5,016,549 for the 2019-2020 school year.
Even while the board put the blame on a loss of state aid, the full room of Tabernacle residents and teachers did not take pity on Robbins and the rest of the board. They expressed fierce opposition to the cuts during the public hearing and throughout the meeting, with shouts and interruptions criticizing the board’s controversial decision to cut staff, especially a highly regarded principal.
“What you are proposing to do tonight, by rifting Dr. Paterson, is going to further rip this family and community apart,” said Donna O’Malley, administrative assistant to the principal at Tabernacle Elementary School and a resident of Tabernacle.
Residents said they understood that cuts needed to be made due to state aid being significantly slashed. However, parents of students with special needs expressed their concerns that cutting special education teachers is a direct hit to the well-being of special needs students, who are already vulnerable in public school programs.
Many of the residents strongly disagreed with the board’s decision that cuts needed to be made within the personnel.
“I moved here in 2016 for a great community that has a great reputation. 2017 looked different, and now it’s looking more and more different,” said Danielle Hale, a parent whose child is in special education classes at Tabernacle Elementary.
Tabernacle’s decision reflects what may come in many school districts across the state as they deal with significant funding changes due to Gov. Murphy’s state aid budget provisions. The announcement by the state happened last summer, and schools are now forced to figure out how those cuts will affect this year’s budget adoptions.
The provision signed last year enforced changes to the School Funding Reform Act of 2008. Those changes are proposing to spread the money throughout the state to balance the scale for under-funded districts. In turn, the state is slashing funding for some districts, including approximately $24 million over the next five years to the Lenape Regional High School District.
“I kindly invite the governor, the commissioner, and for lieutenant governor to come visit our great place and look these people in the eyes, all of us, because we’re all hurting through this,” said Robbins during his budget presentation to the public.
In other budget news:
- With the budget, residents with an average assessed home valued at $264,729 will see an increase in school taxes of $31.
- General funds for the budget total $13.8 million, a 3.83 percent decrease from the current year.
