Republican Assemblymen John Amodea and blasted Governor Corzine today for leaving Atlantic County public schools underfunded through his own formula. Via Politicker, the press release cites a study by the “Education Law Center,” as posted here.

Long story short, Corzine underfunded the budget, and his own formula for public schools mean Hammonton loses close to $2 Million in funding.

As reported in the Hammonton Gazette this week, The Hammonton Board of Education finally put the brakes on a mysterious project to build a small Stockton Campus downtown using taxpayer funds from the Hammonton School Systems.

The Gazette quoted Board Member Joanna Johnson in a confrontation with fellow board member and local developer Steve DiDonato:

“What is your haste to get the board in a financial situation when we have nothing? What is your haste? We will not be bullied by you, a paper, or a political party, or any political party! You’re hell-bent on somehow managing to get this board financially involved with this project!…. It’s just not possible to your way on this issue at this time.”

The Board will meet with Town Council on July 29th according to The Gazette. There has been no official announcement of a meeting on the 29th, as there is a Town Council meeting on the 28th.

Two public officials, who wish to remin anonymous, spoke with The Vine over the past week about the much hyped branch of Stockton College proposed to be built in Hammonton.

Their concerns for the project lie not in bringing a branch of Stockton to Hammonton, but how it will be funded. According to documents these two officials have received, the current proposal calls for the Hammonton Public School System to pay upwards of $2 million to refurbish and/or purchase a site in downtown Hammonton for the Stockton mini-campus. Those officials who have seen the early proposal have called for Stockton to use Hammonton’s existing campus facilities, but they told The Vine that idea has not been brought back to Stockton at this time.

The two officials, who spoke indipendently of each other, made some key points about the project that worry them:

-Stockton is not paying for the building, Hammointon taxpayers will.
-Less than half of the money paid by Hammonton will never be repaid (close to or slightly over $1 Mil would be a “donation” by Hammonton Public Schools)
-No one has seriously considered Stockton using the existing school facilities as opposed to buying a downtown building.
-If the building is going to be off of the public school campus, Hammonton should be paying for it, not the school.
-Board members may be very concerned that spending $1.5 million on college students and not local gradeschool students could bring a backlash from residents.
-The project in concept is a great idea, and will bring young people to the “Main Street Hammonton” area, but leaving the tab on the school takes a lot of money out of the budget that could be used on local students.

Expect some questions to be raised at tonight’s Council meeting and this week’s School Board meeting.

update: Town Council last night approved a vote for the Town Solicitor to come up with a ballpark draft agreement for this project. Translated: “Sounds great. Come back when you know who’s paying for it.”

Robert Bauers Sr., Barbara Berenato, and incumbent John Lyons won the School Board Election tonight.

Incumbents Tom Costa and John Lyons and first-time candidates Barbara Berenato, Joseph Bruno and Robert Bauers Sr. were seeking three, three-year terms.

The budget, which was a “no tax increase” budget, also passed.

update: Folsom passed their school budget, which effected Hammonton High School’s budget.

update 2: Waterford’s school budget was defeated.

Budget: $12,672,348
Yes: 514
No: 735

Board of Ed elections is today. Check our front page for voting locations.

Notice: Important updates to this story are posted below. 

According to a Vine poster who attended tonight’s School Board meeting, Don DiDonato, a member of the Fiscal Oversight Committee, explained that the School Board HAD received the total amount of funding they requested, which included monies for courtesy bussing.

Also revealed at the meeting was the increase of actual student numbers that won’t be bussed, from 225 to 387(the new number includes 162 students on the middle school high school run).

When we get more information, we will post it.

update: Former Board member James MacLane has posted that while the Hammonton First led Town Council gave the total amount of funding the School Board asked in the Budget Referendum, $400,000 of that had to be placed into a surplus.  Therefore, the School Board had to make $400,000 in cuts to match the total revenue it received for the year.  This is quite different than explained by Fiscal Oversight Committee member Don DiDonato.