The Haddon Township Board of Education, with only five members present - board president Kellie Hinkle, John Kendall, Jim Lex, Allison Rodman, and Kristyn Souder - somberly approved the 2024-2025 school year budget that featured the tentative elimination of 16.5 fulltime equivalent positions. At the elementary level, this included a music teacher, a counselor, a nurse, a reading specialist, and a gifted and talented teacher. At the middle school, it included a social studies teacher, a counselor, and a part-time physical education teacher. At the high school, this included a Chinese Mandarin teacher, the school’s media specialist, and not replacing a science teacher, an English teacher, and a secretary.

The other tentatively eliminated positions include a network technician, a transportation coordinator, a bus mechanic, and a facilities position will not be replaced. The two-percent local tax levy increase will be $41 for an average assessed house of $231,245.

Last year, the district folded many of the ESSER-funded positions into the general budget, and also added staffing for full-day kindergarten. District superintendent Dr. Robert Fisicaro said the federal government made it clear that ESSER funds were a one-time infusion, but given increased enrollment and a state aid increase last year, the district felt confident adding those positions to the budget. Meanwhile, the district also accrued a deficit of over $1.8 million due to increasing costs, many of them in special education. Then on February 29, the district received notification of an $806,000, or 8.1 percent, reduction in state aid compared to the previous school year. The district appealed the decision to the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) and requested full reinstatement of state aid, but were unsuccessful.

Personnel decisions were made by the administrative team, where they looked line by line. Eliminating full-day kindergarten was considered nonviable due to years-long community demand for the program.

Fisicaro met with the Haddon Township Education Association (HTEA) leadership and again with the entire union to discuss the eliminations and the overall process. When reached by email, the HTEA declined to comment.

In an interview on Monday, Fisicaro said he did not consult with department heads on their respective budgets, as it would be a conflict of interest for staff to potentially recommend reductions in force [RIF] of their co-workers who were in the same union. In that same interview, Fisicaro confirmed that all non-renewal notices have been sent, but sending RIF notices to tenured staff have yet to be completed. Staff renewals will be voted on at the May 16 school board meeting.

As for the remaining staff, Fisicaro told The Retrospect that the district’s whole-child approach will help mitigate additional pressures placed on teachers. “The most important thing that they can do for a child is to show up,” Fisicaro said. “Maybe it’s time to not worry so much about the highest levels of academic performance, and worry more about stabilizing the child emotionally, helping them enjoy school, and helping them advance a little bit at a time each day.”

Speaking Up

Fisicaro was conscious not to name individuals affected by the tentative eliminations. However, Lisa Huff and her husband, Alan Huff, came to express their disappointment in her non-renewal. The revelation was a whiplash moment, as Huff had been honored alongside her music department colleagues at the April 18 board meeting for receiving the “Best Community for Music Education District” award from the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation (NAMM Foundation). [See HT Music Educators Recognized, page 32, The Retrospect, April 26, 2024] “When I left my tenured position in another district, I thought I was coming home. I am a member of Haddon Township’s Class of 2001. This is my dream job,” Huff, a teacher of 17 years, said. “I want to express my profound disappointment that my value as a teacher is only seen as a price tag. To my communities of families at Edison, Jennings, Stoy, Strawbridge, and Van Sciver, I would like to say thank you for the privilege of caring for your children.”

Alan Huff went further. “I’m angry because this represents broken promises and larger concerns about equity in this district,” he said, and said his wife was reassured her position was safe during her job interview. “I’m also concerned because I know what my wife has experienced in Haddon Township as a part of a very small community of color, both as a student growing up in the district and as a teacher. Ms. Huff’s position was one seen by all students, so our elementary students of color would see their faces in at least one teacher during their educational experience and understand that they do have a place in the classroom.”

Haddon Township Equity Initiative co-founder Lauren Beals also asked for more transparency on how the reductions in force were decided, and mentioned another staff member of color was not renewed. When asked about Beals’ claim during a Monday interview, Fisicaro declined to comment.

The Huffs provided The Retrospect with the district’s comprehensive equity plan, which stated that the district was noncompliant with state standards on targeting recruitment practices for underrepresented populations in every category of employment. In the 2022-2023 school year, the district’s student body was 80 percent white, while teachers were 98.2 percent white, and administrators were 86.7 percent white. On Monday, Fisicaro said that the district has increased the number of staff of color by around five times in the last four years.

Library Specialist, Other Positions Eliminated

Residents were disappointed with far more than Huff’s non-renewal. William B. Brahms, a Haddon Township resident and a former branch manager for the Camden County Library System, accused the district of violating state statute by no longer employing a full-time, certified media specialist. Fulltime, certified media specialists are included as a part of the state school funding formula’s staffing assumptions and a part of QSAC evaluation guidelines.

Fisicaro said the state statute does not specify that the position must be full-time, and that the position could be fulfilled using a part-time, certified media specialist, or a consultant. This is technically correct, as the statute is, “each school district shall provide these library-media services under the direction of a certified school library media specialist.” Fisicaro said the district has not yet determined what kind of certified, media specialist position will be in place in September.

Beyond legal arguments, $3.9 million of the bond referendum is set to transform the Paul F. Gilligan III Media Center. Certified school media specialists are also more important than ever with the rise of AI-generated content and the need to teach digital literacy. Fisicaro explained that the current fulltime, certified media specialist Amanda Tagmire will shift to a classroom teaching position for next year, and will hopefully later return to the media center.

Other criticized eliminations included the elementary school nurse and two school counselors, as they are areas that are already stretched thin. Fisicaro said the district may move around counselors and look into sharing arrangements during the summer.

Frustration Over Funding Formula

What many could agree on was being tremendously frustrated by the school funding formula. The board was particularly enraged that the state used tax returns from 2021 to determine aid for the 2024-2025 school year. The three-year lag puts the district’s financial future in jeopardy, as Fisicaro said he doubted the town’s income decreased since 2021. “The fact that they’re using income level to determine school funding is an egregious, mind-boggling error that was so difficult to believe that I almost didn’t believe it until I saw it in writing,” Fisicaro said, as school districts have no mechanism to tax income. Moreover, district business administrator Jen Gauld said she had sent an OPRA request for the number used for the town’s income, and the state’s calculation was off by $17,990.

In a request for comment, the NJDOE wrote, “District income data is one of the data elements required by the New Jersey School Funding Reform Act,” passed in 2008, “to determine a district’s ability to contribute to school funding. The New Jersey Department of Education runs the school funding formula each year to determine state aid, [and] it uses the most recently available tax return data provided by the Department of the Treasury. For Fiscal Year 2025 state aid, the most recently available income data from [the] Treasury is from 2021 tax returns.”

The state legislature is considering a number of bills to help districts like Haddon Township, including S3018, which would restore some state aid reductions. The assembly version of the bill, A4161, has already passed. Hinkle encouraged anyone interested in advocacy efforts to reach out to her for more information.

Alan Huff asked if it would be possible to increase the local levy by utilizing the healthcare adjustment cap. Fisicaro said that was not his recommendation due to the bond referendum passing, and the board was similarly very hesitant. The district has not utilized any caps during Fisicaro’s tenure due to being unavailable. On Monday, Fisicaro told The Retrospect that the healthcare adjustment cap would likely be utilized for the 2025-2026 school year budget.