The Jersey City Board of Education (BOE) approved their preliminary $1,027,273,122 budget with a roughly 20 percent tax increase at last night’s meeting.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
This year’s spending plan for the Jersey City Public Schools is down about $8.4 million from last year in part due to a proposed $4 million state aid cut.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Norma Fernandez explained that the BOE is underfunded due to state and federal funding cuts due to their own separate funding formulas.
“Jersey City’s local fair share should be $739,5 67,837,” she said, adding that they have lost approximately $98 million from the state this budget cycle, as well as that the City of Jersey City is contributing $452,367,369.
Nonetheless, they are still short roughly $287,230,468, according to the superintendent, noting that they received roughly $287 million in federal funding under the President Joe Biden (D) administration.
Acting School Business Administrator Dr. Francine C. Luce then presented the budget and outlined the process.
She said they got their state aid numbers on February 28th, and then on March 12th, they held meetings with the BOE on their initial budget.
The Jersey City BOE is projecting that the tax levy will about $452 million, which is the standard two percent tax increase.
“We are spending less and allocating less … That’s how we are balancing the budget,” Luce added.
She further stated that salaries are about 20 percent of the budget for $178 million, co-curricular activities, including summer school, sports, and clubs, are .54 percent of the budget at $5.5 million.
That expenditure is being cut by $694,000, down roughly 11 percent from last year.
On the other hand, special education instruction, which is 9.6 percent of the budget at $99.2 million, is getting a 3 percent increase from the 2024-2025 budget.
Additionally, the Central Services of the Business Office and Human Resources are seeing a $824,000 increase, operations, including maintenance, custodial, and security services, sit at $91.7 million – about a 10 percent increase.
Student transportation has a $34.1 million allocation, approximately five percent less than last year, while health and employee benefits are nearly 17 percent of the budget at $168.9 million – up 15 percent from the prior budget.
“We’re hoping for additional funding for SDA (School Development Authority) to fund other projects in the district,” Luce added.
She further stated that charter school transfers have a budget of roughly $168 million, about $3 million less than before, but referred to the remaining items “non-negotiable.”
Luce also mentioned that the budget includes some projects of renovating bathrooms, converting boilers from oil to gas, upgrading roofs, cafeteria, and other parts of the school, as well as that the general fund sits at roughly $914.8 million.
During public comment, Jim Nelson, an activist with Jersey City Together, lamented the cuts.
“We’re still facing that fiscal cliff, but it could have been far worse … This year, we can expect the city to commit more,” Nelson said, noting that the district must remain aggressive in getting payroll tax funds from the city.
Trustee Dejon Morris was very critical of the Jersey City Council for not doing more for the schools.
“They sat there for eight years and we would not have to go to them had they been supportive,” he declared.
Trustee Natalia Ioffe also said the city should have, and should continue to be doing more, to fund the schools, declaring that they deserve about $700 million annually, compared to the $500 million they currently receive.
Ioffe said the district business administrator wanted to meet with the city Business Administrator John Metro and get payroll tax revenue figures, but that never happened, and claimed that the city is underreporting payroll tax revenue.
Trustee Dr. Christopher Tisdale asked about the impact of cuts.
“My goal is to keep the classrooms intact,” Fernandez said.
“What is your suggestion we do?” Tisdale asked Ioffe.
“I’m challenging the city in this instance,” Ioffe argued.
“A secondary solution would be to sue the city,” Morris declared.
Ioffe also declared that development projects should be generating $200 million for the district.
“We need to investigate how much money is coming into these accounts. There has to be something else happening with our money,” BOE President Noemi Velazquez asserted, seconding Morris’ notion to sue the city.
“We were negligent going before the city. It’s the city’s fault because they took advantage of us … We are just as powerful as the city,” Morris exclaimed. He believes they had the facts and resources necessary to win the case.
“The public has no clue what’s happening,” Velazquez added.
“There will be money in the bank cap going forward,” Luce interjected.
Trustee Matthew Schneider noted that about 70 percent of the budget is fixed as is, therefore next year will be even more challenging, while Velazquez said the board should be more active in advocating before the NJ legislature’s committees.
The preliminary budget was approved 6-3, with Schneider, Ioffe, and Trustee Tia Rezabala voting no and it will now head to the county for review and approval.
The Jersey City BOE will hold their next budget hearing on April 30th.
Clarification: This story was updated to reflect that the tax increase proposed in the preliminary budget is approximately 20 percent.
 approved their preliminary $1,027,273,122 budget with a 20% tax increase at last night's meeting.){kind=link}
Guess you shouldn’t have gave out all those raises.
The JCBOE is a shining example of disfunction and greed that still stands here harking back to utter corruption of old days. $1B budget with 4 high schools rating so low they are roughly graduating kids with 95% not up to graduating standards of math and science. Always pointing fingers and never accepting fault they continue to argue, blame, and kids are in the crossfire. We need to go back to the state of NJ and get them to take back budget and curriculum before every child is left behind.
Not quite the whole story. Very shortsighted viewpoint.