JACKSON – The township Board of Education voted down a property tax increase of 9.9% but State Monitor Carole Knopp-Morris overruled the Board’s decision.
The Board unanimously rejected the proposed budget. The sale of the Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School is looming as a way to pay for next year’s education.
Morris conceded months ago that the district “doesn’t have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem” which BOE members and administrators say was created by the state’s inequitable distribution of school aid. She none the less overrode the board’s votes and approved the property tax increase.
This action angered 12th District Assemblyman Alex Sauickie (R-Ocean) who had been working to get state aid funding restored to the school district for months.
“The state caused the problem with its funding formula, and now the state has stepped in and overrode the elected officials who refused to initiate a property tax increase on Jackson residents, and to close a school,” Assemblyman Sauickie said.
The Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School opened its doors in 1962 and serves 234 students in preschool through 5th grade, nearly half of whom are economically disadvantaged according to the state Department of Education (DOE). Those students will be dispersed throughout the other five elementary schools in Jackson. This is expected to increase class sizes to 30-35 students.
“The news is both heartbreaking and personal. I’m enraged,” Sauickie said noting that he had attended Rosenauer Elementary from grades K-5, “and my mother taught countless students there during a good part of her teaching career.”
Sauickie said the Democrat-controlled executive and legislative branches have done little to change the school funding law, which seems to benefit many of their constituents.
Then-Senate President Steve Sweeney, who announced in December that he’s running for governor, introduced the school funding formula legislation known as S-2 that Governor Phil Murphy signed into law.
The district had borrowed money from the state during the last budget cycle. As a condition of that loan, the state assigned a monitor, Morris. Jackson schools is responsible for her salary, which is reportedly six figures.
Impact Of Decision
The school district will be impacted in several critical ways by Morris’s action beyond the closure of Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School.
- Seventy staff positions will be eliminated, which will necessitate increasing class sizes.
- Courtesy busing will be eliminated. With few exceptions, anyone who lives less than two miles from any elementary and middle school or less than 2.5 miles from either high school will not be bused.
- The high school athletics budget will be slashed.
- The number of substitutes and paraprofessionals will be reduced.
- All late buses will be eliminated.
- Co-curricular clubs and advisers will be reduced.
BOE President Expresses Hope
School Board President Giuseppe Palmeri recently attended a segment of News 12’s Ask The Governor report where he voiced his concerns about the lack of funding for Jackson’s school district. He requested that the governor restore funding to the district. The governor responded that he didn’t have the data on the district and that the State Commissioner of Education Kevin Dehmerwould contact him.
“True to his word the Commissioner called me the next day. It was a pleasant conversation. I presented him with an overview of the events related to S-2 over the past seven years,” Palmeri said.
Since 2019, Jackson schools have lost $22.4 million in state aid.
Palmeri said, “although he didn’t make any commitments he was understanding and we agreed to work together. I also extended an invitation for him to visit our district to which he responded positively stating he would take me up on my offer.”
“While the conversation was pleasant, I recognize the need for further action. I am committed to exhausting every resource and pursuing every opportunity in the fight for fair funding in Jackson,” the BOE President said.
“The Jackson superintendent, administrators and board of education didn’t cause this problem. The state, under this current administration did, and it was calculated,” Sauickie said. “No resident of Jackson or any other district impacted by this politically targeted legislation should forget any of this next year when we vote for the next governor,” Sauickie added.
The Fight Goes On
Superintendent Nicole Pormilli previously stated that the district “will be launching a renewed effort to implore the New Jersey Department of Education to intercede on our behalf and offer advanced state aid to reinstate some of the cuts necessary to close the $18 million budget gap.”
