Jersey City BOE staring down $68.5 million state aid cut: ‘It’s very disappointing’

0

The Jersey City Board of Education is staring down a $68,540,271 cut to state funding the next scholastic year, the New Jersey Department of Education announced today.

The Jersey City Board of Education. Screenshot via Facebook Live.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“It’s very disappointing, now we have to look and see what we can do and we have to now sit there and figure out how to do it,” said Jersey City BOE President Gerald Lyons, he declined to comment further until having a chance to review the figures in-depth.

The BOE is holding a special budget meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m., which will stream live on their Facebook page, to address their ongoing superintendent search and the 2022-2023 budget.

The roughly 27 percent state funding decrease is even more significant than the $71,153,359 cut from last year, which reflected about about a 22 percent drop at the time.

However, the district received very welcome news in November when a directive from the U.S. Department of Education indicated that they could recoup up to $126 million in state cuts in order to comply with the American Rescue Plan, as HCV first reported.

State officials have not yet addressed how and when districts would be reimbursed.

Based on the DOE’s projections, Guttenberg sees the biggest school funding increase in Hudson County, a nearly 20 percent bump ($$9,800,013 to $11,734,567), with the second biggest decrease impacting Weehawken – down $13.57 percent ($2,094,531 to $1,810,365).

Hoboken and North Bergen also see a decrease of about 8.54 and 4 percent, respectively, with Harrison down by a little over one percent.

“For the 2022-2023 budget year, the Hoboken Public School District lost a net amount of $471,151 after adjusting for an increase in preschool state aid,” Hoboken BOE President Sharyn Angley said in an email following an inquiry from HCV.

“The District has been following and planning for the S2 reductions in State Aid and this planning has helped the district avoid any cuts to our existing programs or resources.”

Conversely, the Kearny, Secaucus, and Bayonne Public Schools all saw double digit funding increases, with the Peninsula City up over 15 percent.

The remaining districts, the Hudson County Schools of Technology, East Newark, Union City, and West New York all saw single digit percent increases, with East Newark leading the way with a 6.6 percent jump.

The state funding numbers can be viewed in detail here.

 

Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from Hoboken Board of Education President Sharyn Angley.


Warning: A non-numeric value encountered in /home/hcvcp/public_html/wp-content/themes/Hudson County View/includes/wp_booster/td_block.php on line 353

LEAVE A REPLY