The state reduced Cherry Hill's school aid for the 2nd straight year. Here's why district officials say it could get worse in the future.
Patch Staff
CHERRY HILL, NJ — Cuts in state funding for the second straight year have given the Cherry Hill School District difficult decisions in the budget process. And it could become even more difficult in the future, according to the district's assistant superintendent.
Cherry Hill schools are slated to receive $28,592,928 in state aid for the 2025-26 school year — a reduction of nearly $4 million from this year's total.
But with the state's methods for determine how much funding each district receives, Cherry Hill could be looking at even less financial support from Trenton beyond this year, says Assistant Superintendent Lynn Shugars.
"We need to start having conversations during non-budget time about what kinds of fundamental changes are we going to have to make if that is in fact Cherry Hill's new reality," Shugars said in a video about the district's budget and the state-aid reductions.
Shugars is also the district's business administrator and spearheads the process of developing Cherry Hill's school budget each year.
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Last week, she provided an overview of the planned 2025-26 budget, which would eliminate some non-teaching positions and reconfigure the middle schools to what district administrators say is a more financially prudent model, among other changes. Read more: Tax Hike, Job Cuts In School Budget Proposed For Cherry Hill
The Board of Education voted Tuesday to advance the proposed budget. A public hearing and a board vote to adopt the spending plan are scheduled for April 30.
The district's budget would fall a bit from this year's. But because of reductions in aid from other sources, it would require a property-tax increase of $179.59 on the average assessed home of $227,000.
State Aid Cuts
The state's equalization aid is designed to eliminate funding gaps in schools across New Jersey. In a video with Superintendent Dr. Kwame Morton, Shugars explains that the state uses two figures to determine each district's share:
For the first time in recent memory, Cherry Hill has a lower adequacy budget ($209.9 million) than local share ($210.4 million). When the local share figure is higher, a school does not receive equalization aid.
The state gave Cherry Hill $15.2 million in equalization aid for the current school year. But this year, the state put a limit on how much that figure could increase or decrease for the 2025-26 school year.
Without that cap, Cherry Hill would have lost all of that equalization aid, Shugars says. And it's uncertain whether those protections will exist in future budget years, especially since New Jersey will have a new governor in 2026.
The state's formula for determining aid for each school district has remained largely the same. But this year, the state put greater weigh on different factors, Shugars says.
"As I look back at previous years' calculations, the formula has not changed," Shugars said. "What has changed are the multipliers. At the end of the formula, there are multipliers, and they have varied slightly over the last couple of years."
Budget Impacts
Cherry Hill's proposed budget eliminates 19 non-classroom jobs, some of which will be cushioned by retirements or other personnel changes to prevent layoffs.
The district also plans to add a math coach at the elementary level and five interventionists who will be split among the elementary and middle schools.
Arguably the biggest change in the proposed budget is a reconfiguration of the middle schools. Cherry Hill currently uses a "teams" model that groups children to share some of the same classes. District administrators are proposing a "junior high" model, which would eliminate teams.
The junior high model is less expensive and would give the district greater flexibility with assigning staff where they're most needed, Morton says.
"It doesn't affect what students experience," Morton said. "Students still have all the arts. They have the same core academic classes and the same environment. It just allows us to run leaner and more efficiently."
Watch the full video below: