NJ budget crisis: District will now shut school and sell it

💲State aid to the Jackson school district was slashed by $22 million

💲The district has an $18 million budget deficit

💲Administrative and teaching positions will also be cut

JACKSON — The smallest school in an Ocean County school district is being sacrificed to help close an $18 million budget deficit.

Jackson School Superintendent Nicole Pormilli broke news of the "difficult decision" to close the Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School and put it up for a possible sale in an email to parents two days after the academic year came to an end for students.

Pormilli said that despite the decision being made “under duress” no district can reopen in September without a balanced budget that is approved by the state.

"Unfortunately, we have exhausted our most recent rounds of negotiations, pleas, and advocacy and are being compelled to take some painful steps to be able to operate for the coming school year," Pormilli said.

Students will be reassigned to other schools in the districts. Pormilli did not disclose details about the sale.

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Other cuts in Jackson

In addition to shutting Rosenauer, Pormilli is proposing to cut 70 positions, eliminate courtesy and late buses and make cuts to athletics yet to be determined. Yet the district is not out of the financial woods.

The budget will be presented to the Board of Education for a vote on Wednesday. Members have said they could not support a budget with "drastic cuts," according to Pormilli. The BOE can approve the budget, make modifications or reject it

If the board rejects the budget, the state Department of Education will step in, according to Pormilli. The deadline to submit a budget is July 22.

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New Jersey 101.5 Chief Meteorologist and Jackson native Dan Zarrow, who attended Holman Elementary, where he delivers a career talk every year, was saddened by the news.

He said the district has threatened to close Rosenauer before.

"It's a tiny school but a close community," Zarrow said.

The school opened as the Brookwood School in 1962. As of the 2021-22 school year Rosenauer had an enrollment of 234, according to the state Department of Education.

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