CAMDEN - Three schools here will shut down at the end of the school year, officials said Friday.
The Camden City School District said it will move forward with the closures at the conclusion of this academic year, a plan that will cause the relocation of about 750 students.
The three buildings set to shutter are Harry C. Sharp Elementary and Alfred Cramer Preparatory School in East Camden, and Ulysses Wiggins School in Bergen Square.
Yorkship Family School in Fairview, originally part of the closure plan, will remain open according to the district as the state seeks funding to address the building s emergency repair needs.
Four Camden schools to close at the end of the academic year
The cash-strapped district also disclosed plans to eliminate or consolidate an estimated 150 jobs.
The doomed schools Henry C. Sharp Elementary and Alfred Cramer Preparatory School in East Camden; Ulysses Wiggins School in Bergen Square, and Yorkship Family School in Fairview are all in dire need of structural repair, said Superintendent Katrina McCombs, and are on average 30 percent below optimal enrollment.
McCombs also cited a projected $40 million budget shortfall for the 2021-22 school year and a $4 million decline this year in state aid as reasons for the closures.
The closures, McCombs said, come because we don t want this burden to fall on taxpayers, and we can t always rely on emergency (state) aid.