Cherry Hill School Board Race Down to 3

Cherry Hill will have an uncontested school board election in less than two weeks, following the withdrawal of one of four candidates that had been set to run this fall.

It’ll be just incumbents Sherrie Cohen, Elliott Roth and Steven Robbins, after challenger Susan Levy Warner pulled out of the race, the Camden County clerk’s office confirmed.

Both Roth and Robbins have served multiple terms on the board already; Cohen is coming off her first term as a school board member, having previously served on the district’s Zone PTA.

All three incumbents pointed to broad issues—the district’s finances, the condition of the schools and the continuing push for high academic achievement—as being the focus over the next three years and beyond.

“We've directed more funds and invested more in our buildings over the past six years than anybody can recollect,” Robbins said. “There's more to be done there, and I think that's our biggest long-term priority.”

Roth agreed, given the condition of the buildings—as he put it, “They can best be described as ‘tired’,”—both inside and out, as many of the schools date to the 1950s and 1960s.

That long-term planning has to also weigh capacity at the schools, with both planned and potential new housing in the township, though all three board members said the district has a good handle on how individual schools are adapting to changes in population.

“We may have to add on a wing here and there because of the way the population moves,” Roth said. “We don't see any need for an additional school at this point.”

Cohen and Robbins had similar viewpoints, though Robbins said he wouldn’t rule out any options over the long term.

Those infrastructure issues extend beyond just bricks and mortar, though, as Cohen pointed out—tighter budgets mean everything is affected, down to teaching supplies.

“Unfortunately, because of the economy, we can only buy the history textbook for two classes at West and two classes at East, not the entire grade,” she said, referring to one recent example. “I worry whether academically we're going to be able to keep growing.”

Robbins said budget cuts at the state level have been a challenge, though the board and administrators have worked to try to limit the ripple effect to local taxpayers.

“We've kept the tax levy down below inflation,” he said. “I think we've done a pretty good job.”

But more work is necessary, Robbins said, with a need to push legislators to increase the help to local schools. In the meantime, he said Cherry Hill has had success preserving the “great experience” for students in the township’s schools.

“I want to maintain what we've done, and I want to improve what we can,” Robbins said. “I think we're going in the right direction.”

The board members acknowledged there’s still work to be done, especially in trying to close the achievement gap and working to ensure all the children in the district can achieve their full potential.

“Our largest gap at this point in time is for economically disadvantaged students,” Cohen said. “We're trying to figure out why and how we can improve that.”

Tackling those issues with a unified school board helps, Roth said.

“The board...really has become much more cohesive, and because of that, I think a lot more things are getting done,” he said. “We all have the same vision for improving the schools.”

Though it’ll be the same school board next year, Cohen said the diversity of backgrounds, opinions and approaches help them be successful.

“I think that's one of the reason we work so well together,” she said. “I really value that on the board.”