In the coming year, many of RV’s departments will be facing a spending freeze. The change comes amidst a nationwide teacher shortage that began with the shift to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent months, NJ legislators have passed legislation to prevent state aid cuts to regional high schools like RV. In August, Phil Murphy signed a bill preventing the state from cutting aid to schools that consist of at least 5 towns and are in districts that have raised taxes by at least 2.5% in the last 5 years. The law affects RV and the Freehold Township Regional School District in Monmouth County.
Despite this legislation meant to help RV, it appears that budget cuts are imminent and necessary.
The spending freeze seems to already be affecting teachers here at RV. On November 27, Mr. Michael Pliskin posted a sign-up sheet for New Jersey Thespian Festival in the Thespian Society Google Classroom, encouraging thespians to sign up to attend by the 29th (the post has since been edited; the new sign-up deadline is December 6). As an explanation for the very soon approaching sign-up deadline, Pliskin cited RV’s upcoming budget freeze.
“Sign up for events by this Wednesday [November 29] 10 am!” the classroom post reads. “I know this is soon, but RV has a spending freeze coming up, so that’s the best I can do”.
Pliskin says that while the Red Devil Dramatics Performing Arts program will remain largely unaffected by any changes to the school’s budget, he will soon have to begin paying out of pocket to support his classes during the school day.
“RDD is completely funded by students and ticket sales, so we are still able to operate,” said Pliskin. “The main thing for me is the Advanced Acting & Production class’s production of 12 Angry Men… I will begin purchasing things with my own personal money.”
Pliskin said that RV only provides teachers with one box of tissues at a time in place of paper towels, which isn’t sufficient in cleaning up spills.
“I need paper towels in my room. Kids constantly spill food and drink, and the school refuses to provide us with more than one tiny box of tissues at a time… We need paper towels in classrooms,” he said.
Despite this, Pliskin says that in comparison to other schools, RV is well funded.
“Don’t get me wrong, when compared, we got it pretty good here at RV. But in so many ways RV is the underdog example of how amazing public school education can be.”
According to publicschoolreview.com, RV has a budget larger than the average budget for an NJ public school, although its spending-per-student is less than the NJ average.
Such a significant budget change will be a new occurrence for RV’s current students; the school’s budget has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. In 2014, RV approved a 44 million dollar budget. Last year, RV’s total expenditures were 45 million dollars. RV’s last major budget cut was in 2011, which resulted in nine staff layoffs, including six teachers.
RV Principal Joseph Martin declined to comment on the nature of the budget cuts, citing how recently the process of altering the school budget has begun.
“At this point I am not able to comment on budget items as we are heading into our regular ‘budget season,’” Martin said. “These meetings take place with various departments over the course of the next three months, get board approved and then county approved. As you can see there is quite an extensive process (and this is normal in public education). Commenting on anything at this point would be very much premature.”
Teachers, staff and administrators are buckling up for what is to come in 2024, and many anticipate it will be a bumpy road ahead financially.
