Evesham board approves tentative 2025-26 budget after heated public comment over 83 layoffs and program cuts

The Evesham Township School District board on March 18 approved a package of finance and operations items that included the district's tentative 2025-26 budget proposal, after a night of public comment in which dozens of students, parents, teachers and union leaders urged the board to find alternatives to cuts they said would harm students.

The budget presentation by Business Administrator Gregory Yates laid out a $85.66 million preliminary revenue plan and described a structural shortfall driven by lost state aid under the district's designation as an "S2" district and by rising costs. Yates told the board the district would use an enrollment adjustment of $2,336,320 to restore dozens of positions that had been listed for elimination in earlier drafts, but the plan still proposes eliminating 83 positions, about 10% of staff, and making other changes to save roughly $3.8 million in salaries and related costs.

The proposal released for tentative adoption would, according to district slides and the presentation, increase some class sizes at the elementary and middle-school levels, phase out health benefits for some paraprofessionals (with an exception for those with 20 or more years of service), end many elementary extracurricular clubs, restructure middle-school schedules to eliminate some team/independent study time, and outsource most transportation runs. The administration described those changes as painful steps required to produce a legally balanced budget.

Why it matters: The cuts target direct classroom supports and student services that board members, teachers and students said are critical to academic and social-emotional outcomes. Speakers warned that larger class sizes, the loss of independent study time and reductions in paraprofessional supports could reduce individualized help, interfere with IEP…