Funding Concerns Raised At Chatham Board Of Education Meeting

CHATHAM, NJ — The continuing decline of both teachers and paraprofessionals within the Chathams School District is a current issue, and a potential solution was discussed at last week's board meeting.

The possibility of a second question/referendum on raising pay for teachers and paraprofessionals was raised at the regular BOE meeting on Monday night as a way to help solve the paraprofessional shortage.

According to Board of Education President Jill Weber, the current contract with district teachers runs through June 30, 2023, and negotiations for change will be starting soon. "We need to negotiate contracts and we know we can afford two percent because we have a two percent cap in the budget," Weber said.

The referendum, if added to the ballot, would need to be proposed prior to the first draft of the next school budget, which is typically done in March, said, board officials. "It has to be fully baked and as part of the whole budget that gets approved in March," Chatham School District Business Administrator Peter Daquila said.

The referendum could help the district retain teachers and paraprofessionals who are currently leaving to teach in other school districts. More money, according to Bradley Smith, chair of the board's finance/facilities committee, is one of the few things that would help.

"We talked about the ongoing teacher and paraprofessional recruitment issues and how the finance committee could help on that… We're having trouble attracting teachers and paraprofessionals right now and one of the things that might help us out is more money," Smith said.

According to Weber, the finance committee will spend more time looking at the possibility of the referendum and figuring out the numbers and how much money the district would need.

A separate concern raised was the reality of teacher decline and how it will affect classrooms. "The ramifications of not having those funds, what are we looking at? I know we've always said we need to start at the high school level but going from 25 kids to a class to 32 kids in a class can be absorbed a little better at the high school. You can't ask the second grade to go from 25 to 32," Weber said.

The school district's budget is only allowed to increase by 2 percent every year based on the previous year's budget, which limits the amount of money the district can receive. "And all of this is coupled with what we have also talked about a lot, with a huge increase in need for money for special education," Smith said.

According to Weber, the district is set to lose the state Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds (ESSER), which Chatham has been using for the school mental health programs, which have been increasingly valuable.

"This is national news: teacher shortages and mental health for students, so these are the things at the top of our list," Weber said.