PATERSON — An $854 million city school budget that would have raised taxes by 6% and required the layoffs of 36 teachers was voted down, 8-1, by the Board of Education on Monday night.
The board’s rejection of Schools Superintendent Laurie Newell’s proposed budget for the 2025-26 academic year came two days before the district must submit its spending plan to the New Jersey Education Department.
It was not immediately clear Monday night how district administration officials would handle the budget deadline after the board’s rejection of the spending plan.
None of the board members explained their decisions as they voted on the budget, which happened after a 25-minute recess in a meeting that lasted more than than three hours.
Four school board members — Hector Nieves, Joel Ramirez, Muhammed Rashid and Kenneth Rosado — ran for election in 2023 and 2024 on platforms opposing Paterson’s streak of education tax increases that started in 2019.
Also, the board’s president, Eddie Gonzalez, made it clear during a preliminary discussion on Monday night that he would not support a tax hike.
“There’s too many homes in this city where families don’t have an extra dollar to feed their children,” Gonzalez said.
Other board members asked numerous questions about the impact of the budget on the quality of education in Paterson schools.
“We want our children to be better. We want them to receive the best education possible,” said board member Kenneth Simmons, who cast the only vote in favor of the superintendent’s budget recommendation. “But we’re also saying we don’t want to pay for it.”
District Business Administrator June Gray said the proposed budget would include 36 layoffs of teachers, as well as unspecified cuts in special education and support services.
“We’re down to the bare bones,” Gray told the board.
Trustee Della McCall complained that members of the public were being given “a false narrative” about the budget’s impact, demanding additional information about the proposed cuts.
“We’re already failing,” McCall said. “I don’t want to put our kids in a worse situation … If I’m setting these kids up to fail, then I will step down.”
Gonzalez wanted the board to vote on a particular tax increase percentage, and to let the district administration decide how to balance the budget based on that rate.
But the district’s general counsel, Khalifah Shabazz-Charles, said it was up to the superintendent’s staff to make a budget proposal, which the board would vote up or down.
Board member Corey Teague, who repeatedly has urged the district to improve its special education programs, told Paterson Press he voted against the budget because of the proposed tax increase.
“There is no easy way or vote out of this,” Teague said. “But today I cannot support another tax increase.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson school board rejects $854M school budget proposal
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