NJ forces Jackson school district to make $18M in drastic cuts

💲The Jackson Board of Education rejected a budget that fills in an $18 million deficit

💲A school monitor forced the board to accept it

💲The school has authorized its attorney to look into legal action

JACKSON — A state monitor is forcing an Ocean County school district to adopt a budget that the Board of Education had rejected because it relied on cuts to fill an $18 million deficit.

The board had rejected a budget at its July 17 meeting. The spending plan would close the Rosenauer Elementary School, cut 70 positions, eliminate courtesy and late buses and reduce spending on athletics.

State monitor Carole Morris overrode the vote and forced the board to adopt the budget with those cuts on Wednesday, July 25.

Superintendent Nicole Pormelli told the public that the budget was "heartbreaking."

"We are bound by statutes that say no matter how many millions of dollars in funding we have lost and no matter how much our circumstances, costs and student needs have changed over the past seven years, and no matter how responsibly we have acted to keep this district afloat during this overwhelming loss of state aid, we must present a balanced budget," she said.

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Taking a vote

Pormelli said that the district must move forward with the new academic year no matter the board's dislike of the budget.

Board of Education President Giuseppe Palmeri authorized the board’s attorney earlier to take “appropriate legal action to compel the Department of Education to assist the district to ensure it can provide a thorough and efficient education.”

No lawsuit or any other legal action has been taken.

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