Jefferson Township Public Schools: Advocating for Fair Funding Amid Financial Distress

Jefferson Township School District’s ongoing financial challenges have reached crisis levels. Since the adoption of S-2 in 2018, a funding reform bill designed to address inequalities in New Jersey’s public education system, the district has suffered increasing annual losses. These losses exceed $11 million per year, totaling nearly $45 million, and are expected to continue growing. Superintendent Jeanne Howe began warning the community of the consequences of this legislation in 2018, recognizing early on the severe impact it would have. 

In preparing for the 2025-2026 school year, the district faces a budget shortfall of over $3 million, despite drastic cost-saving efforts. These measures include reductions in staff, the closure of two school buildings, and the elimination of several administrative positions, including two directors, two supervisors, one middle school assistant principal, and the assistant business administrator. These cuts, along with the implementation of extracurricular participation fees, adjustments to health insurance plans, and the near depletion of capital and maintenance reserves, have not been enough to offset the debilitating loss of state aid.

The situation is compounded by the restrictions of the Highlands Act, which protects 88% of Jefferson Township’s land from development. While this legislation aims to conserve natural resources, it has severely limited Jefferson’s ability to build new communities, which would increase enrollment and add businesses to increase ratables. The State has provided no impact aid to districts affected by the Highlands Act, but instead gave struggling districts the ability to counteract the loss of aid by raising the school tax levy by up to 9.9%.

Rather than place an undue burden on the taxpayers of Jefferson Township, the Board of Education tasked the administration with formulating a comprehensive district reconfiguration plan to manage resources more efficiently. One of the most significant decisions made was to close a third school building, Cozy Lake Elementary, at the end of the current school year. This step is part of a broader strategy to maximize resources and streamline operations. In September, Ellen T. Briggs Elementary School will house most of the district’s preschool classrooms, Grades K-3 will be at Stanlick and White Rock Elementary Schools, and Grades 4-12 will be held at the current Middle and High School Campus.

In addition to the reconfiguration of their schools, the district also plans to sell its Central Office building, which is located outside the protected Highlands Act area. The sale of this property is expected to provide an immediate, one-time infusion of revenue. The difficult decision to close two buildings is necessary for the district to remain financially viable.

And yet Jefferson Township Public Schools will continue to face serious financial challenges as the pace of expenditure growth will continue to exceed the growth in revenues absent any substantial changes to the State’s funding formula. Insufficient extraordinary aid, unexplained geographic cost adjustments, static transportation aid, and the lack of impact aid for the Highlands Act remain ongoing concerns. As part of the Save Our Schools Group, JTPS has advocated for policy changes at the state level, including funding special education based on actual enrollment and an adjustment to the per-pupil base cost, which has remained unchanged for 15 years.

The district has also engaged in a group lawsuit for failure to provide the school funding formula following a denial of an OPRA request. Administrators have met with several legislators, including Senators Pennachio, Bucco, and Gopal, Assemblyman Baranco, and Assemblywoman Dunn, and testified at the Senate and Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee meetings multiple times. There have been two letter-writing campaigns to engage the community in these efforts, and administrators have written to every legislator, the Governor, and the Commissioner of Education, warning them of the quickly approaching fiscal cliff and providing practical solutions to address the most egregious shortfalls in the current school funding model. 

In her testimony before the Senate and Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committees, Mrs. Howe pleaded for assistance, stating, “The district is not asking for special treatment but for fairness. Jefferson Township’s students deserve access to an adequately funded, transparent, and equitable education system, just as every student in New Jersey does.”

While S-2 has provided much-needed relief to some historically underfunded districts, its impact on Jefferson Township has been devastating. The district is calling for state leaders to reevaluate the unintended impacts of this legislation and to address the continuing inequities in school funding. Despite Governor Murphy's praise for the state’s school funding formula, Jefferson Township has yet to experience the promised relief. Requests for transparency in how the funding formula is applied have gone unanswered, and the district has not seen any resources from the Governor’s proposed relief fund for struggling districts.