NYC promises to hold school budgets steady despite enrollment declines
NEW YORK — All New York City public schools will receive at least as much funding for the upcoming school year as their initial budgets last fall, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday evening as his Democratic challengers took the stage for the first mayoral debate.
The funding is guaranteed to all principals, even those who are projected to lose enrollment.
City Hall estimated the total cost of stabilizing school budgets would come to $128 million. The local Education Department may still claw back funding in the middle of next school year, depending on how many students ultimately enroll — a problem that may be Adams' successor's as the mayor faces an uphill battle to re-election as an independent.
'A strong city starts with strong schools, and that's why we're committing $128 million to stabilize schools budgets despite enrollment changes — so principals can plan with certainty, and our students can continue to learn, grow, and thrive,' Adams said in a statement.
The school budget policy, known as 'hold harmless,' started during the COVID-19 pandemic with federal stimulus dollars. But as principals introduced new programs and hired additional staff, Adams has been under pressure to continue funding schools at the same levels.
While schools logged steep enrollment declines during the pandemic era, those trends have mostly leveled, thanks in part to an influx of migrant students who face an uncertain future in the United States under President Trump.
The promise of additional funding comes as the school system faces economic headwinds. This spring, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature made tweaks to New York's primary education formula, resulting in New York City receiving $314 million less than if no changes had been introduced.
And amid threats of federal funding cuts and moves to dismantle the U.S. Education Department, the leaders of the city's school system have remained tight-lipped on contingency plans. They have not announced any major cuts so far to the nation's largest school district.
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A few votes can swing a ward race. Morris County has a few wild ones in 2025
Local elections, particularly in election years not involving presidential or midterm congressional races, are often decided by a handful of votes cast among low voter turnouts. In towns where council or committee elections are split into separate geographic wards, the voter margins are often razor-thin, with as few as two or three votes sometimes making the difference. That should come as an added incentive for ward residents in towns such as Dover and Rockaway Township to make their vote count. This year, both of those towns feature some of the most contentious campaigns in Morris County. In Dover, two well-known town leaders are challenging incumbent council candidates backed by Mayor James Dodd in separate ward races in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, June 10. The winners will be heavily favored in the majority Democratic town to win office in November. In 2023, the last non-presidential election year, only 1,978 votes were cast in the Dover Democratic primary's four ward races, or about 495 votes per ward. The average margin of victory was about 65 votes. This year, the two most notable and noisy campaigns have been seen and heard in wards 1 and 2. The Ward 1 race pits first-term incumbent Claudia Toro against former Dover Board of Education President Daniella Mendez. Toro, who owns a family tax service in Dover, touts her achievements as a successful female Hispanic business owner and public servant. She's been a Dover resident since immigrating from Colombia in 2004. Mendez made headlines in 2023 as the first trans woman in the state to be elected as a public school board president. After completing two terms leading the board, she stepped down last year to focus on her council campaign, which she launched in December. Raised in Paterson, she's been a Dover resident for 10 years. The race has featured heated rhetoric from both sides, particularly from the Toro campaign and its supporters, which has produced literature, social media and video alleging improprieties in Mendez's personal life. Speaking to the Daily Record a week before the primary, Mendez said she wanted to focus beyond "the smear campaign" of her opponents and stick to the issues. She said the work she does as a director of community engagement for the nonprofit Edge NJ in Parsippany gives her insight into the mental health and other needs of vulnerable, low-income people often found in Dover. Mendez said she is proud of her accomplishments but looks forward to the day when "the fact that I was the first is not a big deal." Her motivation to run for council starts with "I love Dover." "Dover is my adopted hometown," she said. "Serving in an elected office, I feel, is my way of giving back to a town that has given me so much in this chapter of my life. And quite frankly, I think that we have work to do in Dover, and I think that we can do better than we are doing, and I think that I am the right person to contribute to the team that moves us forward." Toro also loves her adopted hometown and launched her professional career after beginning studies for business administration at the former Dover Business College. She opened Toro Taxes on Blackwell Street in 2018. Her campaign lists accomplishments, including launching a senior care program and supporting a community and immigration programs initiative. Toro acknowledges it's been a turbulent first term while supporting the mayor as he has taken controversial steps in his return to office, including a recent decision to hold council meetings virtually without public attendance, seeking to sidestep out-of-town activists who have disrupted meetings in recent months. Mendez and others have accused her of being "simply a puppet" for Dodd. But Toro says she is up to taking some criticism in exchange for the chance to serve the community. "I am a strong woman," she said. "Politics can be intimidating, for women more than men. But I am strong. And I am prepared for this." Dover's Democratic primary in Ward 2 features a rematch between first-term incumbent Sergio Rodriguez against Judith Rugg, whom he unseated in the 2023 primary by 114 votes. Rodriguez's first term is well-documented as he accumulated multiple assault charges resulting from confrontations with men downtown whom he accused of drinking alcohol in downtown public spaces. His next court date to answer those charges is scheduled for June 16. The resulting controversy has generated frequent public calls for Rodriguez to resign, but with Dodd's support, he's eager to tackle a second term. The biggest misconception about his actions and methods, Rodriguez said in a Daily Record interview, is that he is "extremely, sometimes to a fault, transparent." "That comes out in various ways," said Rodriguez, 30, who owns a small business consulting and social media service. "And one of the ways that comes out is through my social media. And so where some people see that as an effort to try to make myself this hotshot politician that cares about his public image and only that, that's the misconception that can sometimes be made if you don't know me. But if anybody has followed me before my political career, they knew I was very vocal on social media. That's where my push comes from, from trying to give out as much information as possible." He brought up the issue of public drinking as an example, saying one of his first-term accomplishments was "shining a huge spotlight on that, to the point where it made everyone else act. It made our law enforcement act. It made our community leaders act. It made our elected officials act." Rugg, a career nurse who came into office with former Mayor Carolyn Blackman in 2019, lost her seat in 2023 as Dodd's "Rescue Dover" ticket, including Rodriguez, swept into office. Pleas from her Ward 2 neighbors to run again, she said, pushed her back into the race. "I believe in the truth," she said. "We don't know how this will turn out, but he was not being challenged on the ballot, and I thought that was wrong." Her top priority back in office would be healthcare. "We need a health department that can meet the needs of our elderly residents, of our uninsured residents, and of our newly arrived residents," she said. "As a nurse, I know how important this is. I served on the council during COVID and witnessed firsthand how devastating the pandemic was for Dover." Other priorities for Rugg would be addressing the need for affordable housing and improving communication between Town Hall and the residents. Another contentious ward rematch is unfolding among Republicans in Ward 6 of Rockaway Township, where incumbent Rachel Brookes is once again facing Tucker Kelley, whom she unseated from the council in 2021 by 96 votes. Brookes is running for re-election with a list of accomplishments and leaning into Kelley's reputation as a controversial figure around town, known for filing frequent OPRA requests and filing lawsuits to uncover what he has seen over the years as corruption and fiscal mismanagement by the governing body. A mother of four boys, marketing director for Crunch Fitness and a former board of education member, Brookes, 43, is seeking a second term. Her campaign literature touts first-term accomplishments, including increased hiring, funding and resources for first responders, ensuring the safety of recreational fields and "open communication and strong collaboration with residents, local groups, schools, and township departments." Kelley, 55, is a lifelong Rockaway Township resident who lives with his wife and daughter in the Lake Telemark section. A real estate entrepreneur, emission-control expert and construction-excavation business owner, he also owns and rents multiple commercial and residential properties throughout town. "I have a background in contract negotiations, municipal budgets as well as a large skill set in multiple trades and property management," he said. Brookes said she resigned from the school board to run for council against Kelley because she was "disheartened" by his behavior on the council. "We became an embarrassment," she told the Daily Record. "I had to make a choice, I felt no one else would do it, and decided to run for that seat." Even out of office, she said, he continues to harass township employees and file costly lawsuits against the town. "He's not a collaborative communicator," she continued. "He doesn't work well with others." Kelley doesn't apologize for his methods in a town he feels burdens residents with tactics that obstruct transparency and fiscal responsibility, stating, "I'm not afraid to stand up." "I am somebody who doesn't welcome the status quo," he said. "It's so costly, it's not effective. It's only helping the few rather than the many." Kelley also disputed Brooke's leadership in the accomplishments she is taking credit for in her campaign, adding she voted to raise council's and the mayor's salaries, while he donated his salary while in office to the Rockaway Township Volunteer Fire Company. Should he win, Kelley says his priorities would include lowering taxes for the next budget cycle, addressing necessary infrastructure upgrades, creating an economic committee to prepare for fiscal issues and increasing the morale of police officers and municipal employees. Both claim a record of fiscal stewardship and holding down tax increases. Kelley calculates he reduced the town's tax burden by $1.5 million through wasteful spending cuts during his term. The two are also at odds over social issues, with Kelley accusing Brookes of supporting a "woke" agenda during her time on the school board. "It's time to stop using our children as pawns in political games," he said. "I strongly oppose the radical woke agendas Rachael supported, such as transgender Policy 5756 (the state's "transgender student guidance" for districts), men participating in female sports and removing Columbus Day from our township calendars." "One of the biggest things is he likes to go on and on about woke agendas," Brookes said. "To me, that's just nonsense. It's just using hot words to be divisive, to divide the community, to not really talk about the needs of our evolving community." "We've increased our first responders," Brookes said. "We have added positions to our police department to hire officers to combat overtime and fatigue of our officers. We've really done a lot of work with the community." Kelley says the biggest misconception among his critics is his overlooking his passion for Rockaway Township and "community." "When I see my tax dollars wrongfully being misplaced to projects that benefit a very few amount of people, including some of our elected officials and their family, rather than the many, it makes me look into areas or topics and try to find a better way of directing our monies to serve the many," he said. Polls on primary day will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The early-voting period began June 3 and runs through June 8. May 20 was the deadline to register for the primary. Applications for mail-in ballots must be received by 3 p.m. on June 9. Mail-in ballots must be received by the Post Office by June 10. County clerks must certify election results by June 23. The 2025 general election takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The voter registration deadline is Oct. 14. This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Morris County NJ has few wild ward races in June 10 primary
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an hour ago
Former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley eyes GOP Senate run against Jon Ossoff in Georgia
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