Teaching, admin jobs targeted in Haddon Township district’s budget cuts

HADDON TWP. — The school district may shed more than a dozen jobs — including in social studies, reading and music classes — to bridge a $1.2 million gap between what the district is projecting for expenses and revenues for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Superintendent Robert Fisicaro says the targeted positions are spread as much as feasible among the seven district schools, with a total of about 190 certified staff, including teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, and child study team professionals.

“We prioritized reductions to all other areas before we talked about student programs and personnel,” Fisicaro said on Monday. “We reduced every single budget line item by 10 percent, just to start with.

The list of potential certified positions, not all teaching slots, is as follows: Gifted and Talented; middle school social studies, elementary reading; music; part-time physical education and health teacher; two counselors; foreign language; media specialist; and nurse.

The administrative positions are as follows: network technician; transportation coordinator; and bus mechanic.

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“And we were able to sharpen our pencil on some special education projections for next year, to project them in a more conservative way, which lowered current deficit from $1.8 million down to $1.2 million,” he added. “And now, we have no other choice but to look at reductions in force.”

Fisicaro said one reason for the cutting is that New Jersey is reducing regular financial assistance to the district by about $806,000. The district is hoping the Legislature will restore at least some of that money, he said.

An additional budget hole relates to cost increases for special education programs. Costs are expected to be about $1.5 million more than originally anticipated, he said.

“And we will receive extraordinary aid in July, which is retroactive for this year, which aims to support those special education costs,” Fisicaro said. “But that’s a flawed part of the state’s funding, too, because they’re not providing us funding on a per-pupil basis, as it applies to special education in our district.”

The draft 2024-2025 budget has its public hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday evening at Haddon High School. It calls for spending about $38.11 million next year, with a local property tax levy of about $26.51 million and state aid of about $9.98 million.

Board of Education approval of the budget is expected Thursday evening. However, the board would not vote on layoffs, or “non-renewals,” until its May 16 meeting. All teachers are non-certified staff have to have their positions reapproved for every school year, he said.

The Camden County Office of Education already has approved the budget. Assuming board approval at the May 2 hearing, it is unclear what the next steps would be if a portion of the state aid was returned to the district at a later time.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Teaching jobs at risk as Haddon Township weighs new budget