The board engaged in a discussion after board member Edward Wang asked if the board could play a greater role in supporting Fair Funding for Cherry Hill Public Schools.
State funding for the Cherry Hill Public Schools wasn’t a topic listed on the agenda for last Tuesday’s Cherry Hill Board of Education work session meeting, but it ended up being one of the most talked about items.
The board spent nearly 20 minutes debating whether it could do more in advocating for more state funding for Cherry Hill Public Schools. The discussion came just a couple weeks after the Fair Funding for Cherry Hill Public Schools committee released an online petition asking for state legislators to stop underfunding the school district and a day prior to the committee’s Valentine’s Day calling campaign.
The discussion began after board member Carol Matlack’s report on the last strategic planning committee meeting. Board member Edward Wang asked if the strategic planning committee discussed the fair funding issues and the recent actions the fair funding group was taking.
“Some parents talk with me and say our board should really be leading in those issues,” Wang said. “But now, we are sort of behind (the fair funding group).”
“We should show some support to the parents who are working on the issue,” Wang added a couple minutes later.
Matlack noted fair funding wasn’t on the strategic planning committee agenda this month; the committee spent its meeting reviewing the list of proposed projects for the district’s planned Oct. 2 bond referendum. She added she and other board members have met with state legislators multiple times and the board fully supports the fair funding group.
“The parent group grew out of the board’s actions with fair funding,” Matlack said. “We were told by legislators that it was all well and good for board members to come and ask them for more money, because that’s our job, to ask for more money. But what they wanted to hear from was the parents.”
“I think it’s really important that the parent group work in tandem with what the board is doing,” board member Lisa Saidel added. “The legislators react to that. True or not, they believe it is our job to ask for money and we don’t have as powerful a voice as individual citizens.”
Board member Jane Scarpellino said she believed the board and school administration were doing their due diligence with advocating for more state funding.
“I don’t know if there’s a misperception that, because there’s a fair funding group that’s doing marvelous work, that the board and administration are not doing anything currently, because that is not the case,” she said. “They are continuing to meet, especially the administration.”
Board member Kathy Judge talked about how she has testified on behalf of the district at multiple events over the past year. Superintendent Joe Meloche added the school district has held meetings with state legislators, including Senate President Steve Sweeney, as well as local representatives.
“They’ve been here. They’ve come to Cherry Hill,” Meloche said. “Cherry Hill is a known entity when it comes to fair funding.”
Board vice president Eric Goodwin mentioned the policy and legislation committee of the board of education previously took a very active role in advocating for state funding and suggested it may be a good idea for the committee to examine the issue closely again.
In an effort to increase communication between the fair funding group and the board, board member Ruth Schultz suggested a representative be selected to attend the fair funding meetings.
Scarpellino said she’d be open to the idea, but only if it had a positive effect on the issue.
“I am not in favor of doing things for optics only if they are not effective,” she said. “That’s my only concern. I want to work on things that are effective.”
Meloche said if board members choose to go to a fair funding committee meeting, it could only be as a general member of the public.
“If you’re going to have board representatives go to the fair funding meeting, it’s going to be as an observer, much as if you go to the Zone PTA meeting,” Meloche said.
Fair Funding for Cherry Hill Public Schools’ next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. at the Malberg Administration building.
