Berkeley Heights receives slightly lower amount of state aid

-Written by an Educator in The Community

Following the Governor’s budget address with a proposed increase of more than $901 million for public schools, Berkeley Heights Public Schools is receiving slightly lower proposed state aid in the 2024-25 school year than this current 2023-24 school year.

Data for all districts can be found in this table provided by nj.com. Here is the summary (sorted by percentage increase to decrease):

BHPS Seven-district dashboard:

A district other than Chatham with declining enrollment:

Other Union County districts (note the funding loss for Kenilworth):

Please note that these funding numbers are part of the proposed budget and are not final until the final budget is passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor prior to the June 30th deadline.

Brief History

Governor Chris Christie (2010-18) mostly took away funding from public schools. Additionally, state aid distribution was uneven. Governor Phil Murphy (since 2018) has brought back a lot of these dollars to all districts in BHCW’s seven-district data dashboard using a “fair funding formula.” Over these years, funding has increased for most districts in the state, decreased in some districts, and has stayed flat in a few districts. This formula is currently in the final year of its phase in for the upcoming 2024-25 school year.

Declines in enrollment could lead to a decline in funding

Berkeley Heights Public Schools has seen a slight decline in enrollment over the past several years. However, The School District of the Chathams and Bernards Township School District are on record of seeing much larger declines than Berkeley Heights in enrollment over the past 5-10 years. Thinking about it, Chatham has had such a decline in enrollment that last year, there was a $500,000 reduction in staffing (due to fewer kids) and that Chatham Middle School, a long-time Grade 6 through 8 building, will soon accommodate Grades 5 through 8 (as part of a larger Full Day Kindergarten phase in).

The point is that while Chatham and Bernards have declining enrollment but an increase in funding, why is Berkeley Heights not also seeing an increase in funding?

Why is Berkeley Heights Public Schools seeing a decrease in funding?

First, a tiny loss of $7,000 is barely a dent in the state aid, let alone the budget as a whole. 

One reason for a decrease in funding now is that the state may have calculated the district was getting too much money the prior year and that state aid was not adjusted that way the state wanted it to be.

However, it is unfortunate that districts surrounding Berkeley Heights in similar size and demographics are seeing an increase of approximately $300,000 to $400,000 in funding, or a gain of 10%, Berkeley Heights is not able to utilize an excess of funding for the 2024-25 school year.

Please note that in no way is this slight funding loss the current Berkeley Heights Board of Education’s fault. The School Business Administrator can appeal to the state if he feels that this loss of aid is meritless. However, it is odd that Berkeley Heights received increased funding in each of the past seven years (see links below).

State aid amounts:

2017-18 (+8% for BHPS; Governor Christie’s final year)

2018-19 (+21% for BHPS; Governor Murphy’s first year)

2019-20 (+11% for BHPS)

2020-21 (+5% for BHPS)

2021-22 (+21% for BHPS)

2022-23 (+20% for BHPS)

2023-24 (+16% for BHPS)

2024-25 (-0.26% for BHPS; proposed)

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All Articles on the 2024 Budget

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