East Orange BOE holds first meeting since receiving increased state funding
The large amount of funding comes after laying off dozens of staff members due to budget cuts.
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The East Orange Board of Education received its highest state funding increase in 17 years. This comes after laying off dozens of staff members due to budget cuts.
The Board of Ed rescheduled the first regular meeting following the increase. It's regularly Monday at 6 p.m. but was held on Wednesday at 5 p.m. instead.
The layoffs impacted 75 staff members and caused quite a stir, only to find out three months later that the district received more than $9.4 million from the state.
"That $9 million certainly would have helped but to be fair, the increase in charter school payments of $5 million would have been offset as well," said Superintendent Dr. Christopher Irving.
He said they got hit with a new bill for $5.4 million to fund charter schools since more public school students are switching to charter schools.
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Danna Dennis is the parent of two students within the district.
"We have, as they reported, thousands of students who have left the district to go to charters because of again not feeling like they're receiving what they need here internally," she said.
Dr. Irving says the other $4 will go toward a series of different resources and programs throughout the district, which were laid out in their budget plan and presented to the public.
While employee contracts were brought up, mostly by current staff members during public comment, the school board didn't mention any plans in the budget to address the dozens who lost their jobs in the middle of the school year. But they do plan to hire more teachers.
"We are working furiously to ramp up our opportunities to advertise and recruit new teachers in the forthcoming year. The challenge we have is, we're in competition with every district around New Jersey," said Dr. Irving.
He also emphasized a 0% tax increase this year for East Orange residents and discussed the district's first gifted and talented school set to open in September 2026.
