Camden School District makes 'very difficult cuts' amid $91 million budget deficit

CAMDEN, N.J. (WPVI) -- Sweeping cuts are coming to the Camden City School District.

District Superintendent Katrina McCombs announced that hundreds of positions are being eliminated. Some schools are also being restructured. It's all in an effort to fill a $91 million budget deficit.

"We are implementing a series of very, very difficult cuts," McCombs said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Camden City School District is eliminating 289 full-time positions. They range from attendance and security officers to teachers, nurses and even principals. Some are vacant jobs that won't be filled, but 117 of them are layoffs.

"One hundred seventeen individuals will no longer have a job, unfortunately, beginning July 1," said McCombs.

It's the result of a budget shortfall, which district officials say is the result of long-term funding issues. The district has struggled for a while with issues like test scores and graduation rates. In 2013, the state took control of the school district in a rare move.

Pamela Clark, president of the Camden Education Association, said, last year, she was told that the budget deficit was around $50 million. The projection for next year is now $91 million, with the district losing a large amount of previously issued emergency funding.

"When I heard that, I was like, no, this cannot be possible," said Clark, whose organization is the union representing more than 1,000 teachers in the district.

Clark says the cuts will mean teachers left at the district will have much more added to their plates.

"I just don't want them to feel the pressure, which they are. It's going to affect everybody," she said.

The district's plan also includes restructuring Morgan Village Middle School- using it as an alternative school- and sending 7th and 8th graders back to elementary school buildings. The Camden High Campus - and the four schools based there - would go from having four principals to having just one principal overseeing all four schools. There would be four lead educators on the campus. Previously, there had been four principals and five lead educators.

Just under 6,000 students are enrolled in the Camden City School District. That's nearly a 50% decrease in the last decade. A number of students have left in favor of charter and renaissance schools, which have also been a source of budget woes.

"Charter school and renaissance payments have grown to $198.6 million," said McCombs.

Still, union leaders want to double-check the numbers.

"We're going to be requesting budget information. Detailed budgeting information from the district that we can go over," said Ryan McCarty, with the New Jersey Education Association.

Superintendent McCombs, who attended Camden schools as a child herself, says the cards should make up for the $91 million deficit next year. She won't be at the district to see it through, though.

Last month, the 30-year school district veteran announced she was resigning to work for the state Department of Education.