Restorations Made To 2023 Lacey School Budget

LACEY, NJ — Cut jobs in the Lacey Township School District are being restored thanks to additional money being added to the 2023 budget.

When it was initially announced that the district would be receiving a cut of nearly $4 million in state aid in the upcoming budget, school officials planned to cut 73 jobs and realign the district.

Since then, a State Senate bill restored $2.6 million to the budget. Additionally, the Lacey Township Committee sent the district $456,000 from the Lacey Municipal Utilities Authority, which as an autonomous body has the ability to transfer five percent of its funds to the township.

At the latest Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Vanessa Pereira announced that the district had also moved $756,000 from their free balance to the budget. The free balance is leftover money meant for emergencies like replacing an HVAC unit, or something like when the district had to replace the floor at Mill Pond several years ago when mercury was discovered, she explained.

"The question then becomes, what have we been able to restore since the tentative budget?" Pereira said after explaining the above additional funding.

All full-time paraprofessionals have been restored back to full-time status, as have the district's six health office clerical assistants, she said.

And 31 non-tenured teachers have been restored to reduce class sizes at the elementary level, as the original staff reduction meant that the class sizes would go up into the 30s, Pereira explained.

"So what happens next? We continue to explore all options that are available to us in restoring more monies again," Pereira said. The district has also applied for a $167,000 health benefit waiver that they are able to apply to their tax levy base.

The public hearing for the budget is set for the May 4 meeting, after which the Board of Education will vote to adopt it.