The new commissioner of the state’s department of education visited the school district on May 29 as part of discussions on funding, according to the township board of education.
“So we’re going to be talking about the reality of what it’s like in Cherry Hill,” Cherry Hill Board of Education President Gina Winters said at the board’s May 26 meeting, ahead of the visit by Commissioner Lily Laux. “How our community has stepped forward again and again to support our schools, including with the bond referendum, which the community voluntarily took on (as an) additional tax burden to fix our buildings after years and years of neglect caused by – you got it – underfunding from the state, which is what’s happening again.”
Superintendent Kwame Morton announced Laux’s visit in a May 19 letter.
“As a next step, Dr. Laux will be visiting Cherry Hill Public Schools to continue this conversation and to gain first-hand insight into our schools, our students and the challenges we are navigating,” he explained.
The district is expected to start talks on a new funding formula in July. Winters said the goal will be to have a new formula in place before next year’s budget cycle, something she called an “extremely aggressive timeline.”
“These meetings would not be happening if it wasn’t for the communities advocacy efforts,” Winters emphasized of the commissioner’s visit. “The reasons that we are getting these meetings and getting the attention of high-level officials in Trenton is because the community has consistently and forcefully advocated for itself to tell them that the budget impacts on Cherry Hill are real. That we’re at a breaking point this year.
“And that we need help in order to move forward.”
Mayor David Fleisher addressed the visit at council’s May 26 meeting.
“I was recently able to join the superintendent, school board members and local legislators for a discussion with the New Jersey Department of Education commissioner, her leadership team and representatives from the governor’s office to express concern about funding for Cherry Hill schools and the impact on our tax payers,” he reported.
“Please rest assured that this advocacy continues.”
Winters said that because of its size, the district is able to advocate more effectively than smaller school systems.
“There are other smaller districts around South Jersey who are in dire straits,” she pointed out. “But they’re not able to mobilize the way – and on the scope and the scale – that we are. So right now, we’re really able to advocate effectively for ourselves, but also for other school districts in South Jersey, and lend our voice (to say) that the entire system is unsustainable.”
Board member Kurt Braddock thought Laux should visit areas outside of the school district.
“If you can strategically go down some streets and other streets,” he offered, “go to some neighborhoods and other neighborhoods as you go to the schools, I think that’s going to drive the point home, not just the schools themselves.”
Mike Yaple, public information officer for the New Jersey Department of Education, did not specify which schools the commissioner visited.
State education department Commissioner Lily Laux visited the district on May 29.
