When: March 24, 2021

What:

• Call and/or Email Governor Murphy and NJ Legislators
  • Use this sample email to contact New Jersey government officials
• Tag legislators on Twitter
  • Use hashtags #NJSOS #StopStateAidCuts
  • Make sure to use the @NJ_SOS tag along with tagging legislators

Let your voice be heard!

Why: To save the Lenape District and others from unjust budget cuts resulting from a flawed funding formula.

A Message from LRHSD Board of Education President Barry Fitzgerald

This is an unusual year and not a year for the “business as usual” attitudes from some elected officials when it comes to implementing state funding cuts. Throughout NJ and locally there have been some elected officials who joined us in our request to pause the cuts to our state funding, but not all. This is not a political party issue, it is a student issue, one that impacts every kid in the Lenape Region.

We are not alone in our demand for state funding for our students. We started a movement, right here in the Lenape region, a movement now which consists of over 130 school districts!

The Support our Students (NJSOS) group is calling March 24, 2021, Legislative Day for NJSOS.  Let our voices be heard as we collectively send letters, use social media and make phone calls to our Governor’s office and NJ Legislators. Let them know we are not going away and we will be heard!

Here is a sample letter you can personalize to email, below are  some short messages you can use for your brief phone call or tweets, and here is our website of email addresses, twitter handles and phone numbers.

Tweet or say them all or create your own:

• “COVID relief money is intended to make our schools safe for students and staff and to provide academic, emotional and social support for our students as we emerge out of this pandemic. COVID relief money cannot fill the hole created by your planned cuts to our state aid.”
  
  
• “Cutting state aid will have irrevocable and far-reaching consequences, hampering our ability to prepare students for success in college, careers and the workforce in a post-COVID-19 world.”
  
  
• “I am concerned about the negative impact S2 will have on our students. I urge all elected officials to take a positive action to address the critical issue of school funding by allocating full and fair funding for all.”
  
  
• “NJ is known for producing graduates prepared to succeed, the LRHSD is one of those districts which help NJ boast its recent #1 National Ranking. If our elected officials don’t find a better way to create revenue and to fix the flawed school funding formula, our district’s and our state’s great reputation for student success is at risk.”
  
  
• We ask for three things:

1. Pause state funding cuts caused by S2.
2. Work to update the antiquated school funding formula.
3. If a revised funding formula dictates the cuts are necessary, reestablish a better timeline for districts to manage the cuts within the capped tax levy.

• “S2 will not advance public education, it will not promote the achievement of all students and it is certainly not effective governance. Helping some students at the expense of others is wrong."

LRHSD Family, we need your help on March 24, 2021. Please mark your calendars and spend a few minutes that day to send an email, make a call or use social media to be heard.

Sincerely,

Barry Fitzgerald
President of the Board of Education
Lenape Regional High School District