Cherry Hill school district is considering staff reductions and reconfiguring middle schools due to state funding cuts

Faced with a cut in state funding for the second straight year, the Cherry Hill school district has proposed eliminating 19 support positions, reconfiguring its middle schools, and raising property taxes to bridge a projected budget gap.

District officials say the changes in the proposed $256 million budget for the 2025-26 school year are necessary because of a 3% reduction in state aid. Cherry Hill is among more than one-third of the state’s 600 districts slated to get a decrease in funding under Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget proposal.

The school board approved the preliminary budget 8-0 at a special meeting Tuesday night. It must next be reviewed by the county school superintendent. Following a public hearing, a final vote by the board is slated for April 30.

Here’s what you need to know about Cherry Hill’s budget proposal:

Although the proposed Cherry Hill school budget is about $309,000 less than this year’s spending plan, it would mean an annual property tax increase of about $179 for the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $227,000 due to the state funding cuts, the district said.

The proposed budget has drawn strong reactions from residents on social media. Residents in the South Jersey community of 70,000 approved a 20-year bond referendum in 2022 that raised annual property taxes $400.

“Where’s the benefit of all these taxes I’m paying? I’m just not seeing it,” said Carolina Bevad, a mother of three and president of the Richard Stockton Elementary School PTA. “It just always feels like we’re caught flat-footed.”

» READ MORE: Cherry Hill is asking parents to help fill substitute teacher vacancies

In addition to eliminating 19 support positions, the budget proposes cutting contracts with educational service providers and eliminating permanent substitute teachers, said Lynn Shugars, the assistant superintendent of business. More cuts may be needed if the board decides against using $1.3 million in banked funds collected from the tax levy to help bridge the gap, she said.

Few details have been released about a proposal to change the middle schools to a junior high school model. The board has discussed switching the model for several years.

Superintendent Kwame Morton said switching from the middle school model would provide flexibility and generate savings, the district said. A dollar amount was not provided. Morton said the district hopes to avoid increasing class sizes.

Cherry Hill has three middle schools: Henry C. Beck, John A. Carusi, and Rosa International. They enroll sixth through eighth graders. Middle schools typically have small learning environments, and a team of teachers is assigned to groups of students. Most junior high schools typically enroll grades seven through nine.

» READ MORE: The Cherry Hill school board has banned cell phones for its members during meetings — mirroring a student phone ban

There was a bright spot in the budget proposal — a plan for an additional elementary math coach and five intervention specialists. The district said the positions were needed to help students still recovering from learning loss suffered during the pandemic.

Shugars sounded an alarm that more changes may come in future years if the current state funding trend continues. Because the district received supplemental aid last year that is not included in this year’s aid, the district says the total reduction is a loss of nearly $4 million in aid for 2025-26.

“I think everything has to be looked at,” Shugars said. “There are no easy changes here.”

This year, New Jersey changed the school funding formula it uses to award aid to districts. Under the old system, Cherry Hill’s funding was reduced by 19% for the 2024-25 school year, among the biggest cuts in South Jersey.

In an attempt to limit funding fluctuations that left districts scrambling to fill budget shortfalls in previous years, the state informed districts this year about a worst-case scenario in advance. The preliminary figures still were unexpected by some districts, partly because of the new funding formula.

» READ MORE: All 19 public schools in Cherry Hill are getting upgrades. Here’s how the bond-funded projects are going.

Last year, Cherry Hill protested the state aid reduction and lobbied the legislature, arguing the cuts would upend education. Some aid was restored to Cherry Hill and 139 other districts.

The group Fair Funding Cherry Hill has launched a campaign calling for the district to get its fair share and plans to travel to Trenton next week to testify at a budget hearing. The group has urged residents to tag local legislators in social media posts on Tuesdays and call or email local legislators every Friday.

“After cutting us for so long, they shouldn’t be cutting us now,” said Ilana Yares, the group’s chair. “Give us our money.”