Cherry Hill schools weigh solutions to ease overcrowding, despite budget crisis

Despite a looming budget crisis, the Cherry Hill school district is considering spending millions to build additions to ease overcrowding at two schools.

The school board last week debated the proposal first presented in February to add classrooms to Clara Barton Elementary and Rosa International Middle School.

With a projected $29 million budget deficit for the 2026-27 school year, board member Renee Cherfane said a committee spearheading the “Elementary Enrollment Balancing” project confirmed that Superintendent Kwame Morton wanted to move forward.

However, during a presentation to the board at its work session, Cherfane said board members want more details about how many classrooms are needed and how those numbers were determined. The discussion transitioned to focus on the budget cut implications.

Cherfane said the committee also explored possibly imposing an enrollment cap at Rosa, which is the most overcrowded of the district’s three middle schools.

Another possible option considered was redistricting and sending some elementary students to Henry Beck Middle, which has available space, she said. No details were provided on how that would work if approved by the board.

With unanswered questions, Cherfane said the committee was not ready for a board vote. But time is running out, she said.

The board must decide by August in order to submit bids for the additions to be completed for the 2028-29 school year, she said.

“We can’t really drag our feet any longer. This is the opportunity that we have as a board to start looking at this and figure out how we want to move forward,” she said.

Board member Bridget Palmer said she had expected the committee to present a more sweeping plan with long-term solutions.

“We’re in a year and a situation where it’s a whole menu of terrible choices that are going to hurt people that give us all concern, that are causing us all to lose sleep at night,” she said.

A date was not set for a board vote.

A demographic study conducted in 2024 showed that five of Cherry Hill’s 12 elementary schools are expected to have a total shortage of 337 seats in the 2028-29 school year. Barton and Rosa had the biggest need.

To meet an anticipated enrollment growth, the South Jersey school system considered adjusting the boundaries assigned to the elementary schools, much to the angst of parents who want to send their children to neighborhood schools, typically within two miles of where they live.

The board decided against redrawing the elementary boundaries and said it would consider additions to Barton and Rosa and monitor growth at the other schools.

Details about how much the project would cost have not been provided. Business administrator Jason Schimpf said the district would use $23 million in interest from a $363 million bond referendum approved in 2022 to pay for the project.

Schimpf said the district decided against using the interest to offset the deficit in the proposed budget. The board will vote April 28 on the budget, which calls for cutting 70 positions and eliminating programs.

The bond interest is a one-time infusion of funds, Schimpf said. The district has exhausted available surplus funds in previous years, he said.

“We are not creating enough recurring revenue to pay and sustain our expenses,” he said. “When those bond proceeds are gone, we are going to be right back in this situation again.”

Board member Miriam Stern asked whether transportation changes had been considered. Morton said changing bus routes would affect hundreds of families.

Morton said the only transportation options under consideration as budget cuts were reducing courtesy busing or reducing busing for afterschool activities.

Board president Gina Winters said possible busing changes “may be a terrible idea” and noted the board should carefully weigh all options.

“We are running out of options to balance the budget,” Winters said. “No one is going to be comfortable.”

Cherry Hill, which has about 11,000 students, has struggled to close a projected budget gap, caused partly by a decline in state aid for the third straight year. The preliminary budget approved by the board last month would increase property taxes by $420 for a home assessed at the township average of $227,000.

Morton clarified last week that the district has no plans to eliminate its elementary world language and computer science programs. Spanish and computer science teachers have been reassigned. He said the district will change how it presents those subjects to meet state mandates for both.

“We absolutely share in this frustration,” Morton said. “We don’t want to be in this position at all. “