Facing Cuts, School Postpones Budget Hearing

By Bob Vosseller

JACKSON – The township school district postponed its school budget public hearing until May 8 to allow for more time to advocate for change and a better plan.

The hearing was rescheduled from its April 26 Board of Education meeting date to May 8 at 5:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center of Jackson Memorial High School.

Superintendent Nicole Pormilli explained “in order to have every moment possible to continue to advocate for our students and to create a budget under impossible circumstances, on the advice of the Ocean County Superintendent of Schools, we are moving the date of our Public Hearing to the last possible day within the state-mandated budget calendar.” Pormilli added, “the district needs as much time as possible to continue to draw attention to its budget crisis and to advocate for relief the district needs. The district is working closely with the Department of Education and the Ocean County (Budget - See Page 8)

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Bob Vosseller JACKSON – Jackson Memorial High School graduate Emily Dolan won two awards during the Television

Academy Foundation’s 42nd College Television Awards, which recognizes excellence in student-produced programs from colleges across the nation.

Dolan had been nominated along with 13 of her classmates at Montclair State University in the News category for

Who Can Use Town Hall?

phere questioned the application process for the municipal building located on Evergreen Road.

Township Attorney Jean Cipriani explained, “the business administrator (Jennifer Witham) and I will be having a conversation about setting up a policy. It has been a first come, first served basis if it wasn’t in use. If it is available it needs to be available for any group for a first come, first serve basis. There can be requirements regarding scheduling a time, held harmless and cleaning and those type of things.”

Witham explained that were she to get a request “and if it is available, we’ll see that the door is unlocked. We do have rules for the downstairs about putting things back the way you found it. If you were to have a gathering of over 25 people, we have a form that you can fill out to identify that there will be a lot of people in the parking lot and to notify first responders if there was to be a larger gathering.”

“New Orleans/Raging Storms.” She served as a director, producer and writer on the project, which was selected (Awards - See Page 4)