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.