Board Adopts $38M Budget After Secretary Pushes Back on Losing Her Own Job

The Board of Education adopted its 2020-2021 budget at its April 27 public hearing, totaling $37,995,427 and raising $32,997,188 through local taxes -- a 3.16 percent tax levy increase that will add about $359.40 a year to the average Glen Ridge home, assessed at $665,784. The budget adds a first grade teacher, a school nurse at Central School, a new self-contained special education class at Ridgewood Avenue School, and an Orton-Gillingham reading specialist, and includes $675,000 for a roof and rooftop unit replacement at Ridgewood Avenue School.

To help fund those additions, the budget eliminates a part-time secretary position at Ridgewood Avenue School -- a cut that drew a wave of pushback during public comment. Jordan Schaefer, the Glen Ridge resident and staff member who currently holds the job, read a statement asking the board to reconsider, arguing that cutting the office from one and a half secretaries to one would compromise the daily safety check-in for the school's roughly 600 students and undercut security measures the district had spent the past year putting in place. Residents Diane Preston, Corina Slackman, John Decker, Matthew Willoughby and Kelly Moylan each spoke in support of keeping the position, with Willoughby -- a high school principal himself -- calling school secretaries "linchpins" whose loss could have outsized effects for relatively small savings. Superintendent Dirk Phillips said the cut was not made lightly and that administrators had been consulted, but the board proceeded with adopting the budget as presented since state deadlines required a vote that night.

The board also accepted, with regret, the retirement of longtime Ridgewood Avenue School nurse Joan DeJong, effective July 1, with Board President Elisabeth Ginsburg calling her a beloved fixture at the school whose shoes will be hard to fill. Ginsburg and Phillips also offered thoughts and prayers for Glen Ridge Police Officer Rob Roberts and his family.

The board approved $532,489.84 in bills and claims and ratified $1,443,202.13 in payroll and related payments for the month.

• Adopted the 2020-2021 budget: $37,995,427 in total spending, a 3.16 percent tax levy increase (about $359.40/year on the average home)
• Eliminated a part-time secretary position at Ridgewood Avenue School over strong resident objection
• Added a first grade teacher, a Central School nurse, a new special education class and a reading specialist to next year's staff
• Approved $675,000 for a Ridgewood Avenue School roof and rooftop unit replacement
• Accepted the retirement of Ridgewood Avenue School nurse Joan DeJong, effective July 1

Watch key moments

• 13:09 — Business Administrator Barbara Murphy walks through the full 2020-2021 budget presentation
• 26:19 — Jordan Schaefer makes an emotional personal appeal against the elimination of her own position
• 34:38 — High school principal Matthew Willoughby warns the board that cutting a secretary role is "taking away half of a linchpin" for marginal savings