In some New Jersey schools, the impact of the life-altering coronavirus pandemic on the state’s high school sports world could stretch far beyond a canceled spring season and a fall season hanging in limbo.
Thursday, Gov. Murphy revealed a proposal that would slash $335 million of state funding, essentially erasing February’s $336M increase that in many cases was already incorporated into approved school district budgets around the state. At the same time, districts are bracing for what Toms River superintendent David M. Healy expects to be a doubling or tripling of operating expenses related to social distancing requirements — such as class-size limitations, busload restrictions and increased cleaning — if schools reopen in September.
That’s a one-two punch that could mean massive pandemic-related shortfalls — shortfalls that could result in athletic programs and teams getting reduced or altogether eliminated, among other key staff and programs.
“I’d say (sports are) very much in danger,” said Richard Bozza, the executive director of the NJ Association of School Administrators, a superintendents’ professional association and lobbying organization. “There could be reductions in the number of coaches and the number of levels. In the last round of cuts in state aid when the Christie administration began, parents were asked to foot the bill for kids to participate in sports once (schools) were financially unable to do so. I think all of those scenarios are in play.”
The new funding figures, still awaiting legislative approval, come as the state's revenue streams continue to plummet amid pandemic-related spending, all fallout from the pandemic and the statewide near-lockdown that has been in place since mid-March. Friday, Gov. Murphy couldn't rule out additional cuts to state school aid. "Everything’s on the table, sadly," Murphy said at his daily briefing. "If we don’t get the borrowing (ability) and we don’t get the federal cash, nothing is sacred."
"Like for many of my colleagues, it's hard to predict," said Healy, speaking about the problems of uncertainty in funding.
"The guidance we're receiving out of the Department of Education and even out of the governor's office is ambiguous, at best," Healy continued. "It's open to interpretation, which really complicated things for agencies throughout the state…. The information comes at us daily and sometimes hourly. It changes regularly. And oftentimes, it's left up to 600 districts to make decisions on their own and those decisions are often different. That ends up pitting district against other district and making comparisons, further creating some of the problems."
Schools, which have been ordered closed since mid-March and will remain shut down through this school year, have been operating in remote-learning mode for more than two months. Spring sports, at least until the season was officially canceled on May 4, were also muddling along virtually, with video conferences and digital workouts.
Much speculation and guesswork remains about what New Jersey schooling will look like come September. Gov. Phil Murphy said earlier this week that he hopes to have an announcement about a return-to-school plan by mid-June, but school officials aren't expecting true and actionable figures on state aid to come till late August.
And talk about fall sports might end up moot. Healy said there's significant buzz among state superintendents that in-person school shouldn't start till January 1 - not directly because of safety, but because of what a safe opening might cost. Opening in January saves four months of unbudgeted social-distancing expenses.
"That has been the discussion that's been brewing and really for a lot of reasons, (though) things change - July may look different, August may look different," Healy told NJ Advance Media in a May 22 interview. "Based on what the requirements appear to be for returning to school - even if we remain flat on our state aid, there's no way we can open (in September). We're talking about expenses that would double and triple just to be able to accommodate social distancing measures in the classroom, in buses. You're talking contractual concerns with our bargaining units. Health concerns. Concerns that are legitimate. Really, the overlying message to pretty much all of us - and I'm not the only one hearing this - is that based on the here and now, it would be an impossibility to be able to open in-person school in September.
"What does that do to fall sports and winter sports? It's a wait-and-see game," Healy added.
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Bozza doesn't believe that schools will remain closed until January, although he did acknowledge that there are numerous concerns about reopening schools with heavy social distancing restrictions still in place.
"Yes, it's a possibility. Is it a likelihood? No, I don't think so," Bozza said. The reason I say that is because the governor said (Wednesday) that he hopes to have schools open in September in some form. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered to open.
"We don't know of the finances we'll have, we don't know what the requirements will be, whether or not we can do a hybrid type schedule where students are in the buildings sometimes and instructed at home as they have been in these months at the end of the school year. We don't know what the health requirements will be, we don't know how to screen kids coming in."
Athletics, along with the whole array of extra curricular activities and clubs, could be among the first items on the chopping block if cuts are to be made.
"We just restored our athletic program the last two years," said Franklin Walker, Superintendent of Schools in Jersey City. "To now be in a position to have to talk about eliminating some of the sports would be devastating, especially in a large, urban district like Jersey City, where sports has always been a means to an end, that allow some students to be able to get a college education that they otherwise couldn't afford. Plus it's also a motivational activity for all students, but certainly for those in large urban districts, provides opportunities that other things and other places can't do."
Battling budget cuts, of course, will be nothing new to many districts. Those impacted negatively by S2 - the 2018 landmark school-aid redistribution law, which has dramatically cut state funding to some schools, particularly for many along the Jersey Shore, like Toms River - could be forced to cut even more teachers than already planned for.
"We will be fighting to protect and preserve everything we have," Healy said, adding that Toms River will lose $100 million in aid over the next seven years, not counting whatever additional pandemic-related losses may be coming. "I've been doing it for years. I've been in Trenton. I've testified. I've had rallies in Trenton with thousands of our students to protect what we have. We're going to continue that as a community."
Toms River recently skirted having to cut $1.7M of its athletics budget - almost half of its entire $3.8M budget for co-curricular activities for the upcoming school year - when a number of its highest-paid employees opted to retire shortly before its budget meeting in April, Healy explained. But continued cuts could threaten the viability of sports again. "All that work (to save that budget) is up in the air," he said.
That uncertainty about the future is alive in other parts of the state, as well, although hope remains that sports can remain untouched.
Asked whether state aid cuts threaten high school sports in the West Morris Regional School District, responsible for Mendham and West Morris high schools, Superintendent Michael Ben-David said, "We've looked at other cost-saving avenues. We've restructured and reduced our administrative lineup in our district. Our goal is really to minimize the impact as much as possible on our teachers, our students and our programs. So if administrators are going to have to do more with less of them, then that's fine. That's what we're going to have to do right now.
"We would look at every possible avenue we could before impacting athletics and student programs, given how important they are to kids in the wake of missing a spring season," Ben-David added. "The absolute last thing we would want to do is decrease our extra-curricular offerings for our students. That would be one our very last options, if pushed to it."
Pitman, a small school district in South Jersey, has already cut one varsity sport for next year and has entertained the idea of slashing freshman sports.
But, like other school officials, superintendent Patrick McAleer says it's simply too early to tell what the end result is going to be.
"For next year, we are eliminating varsity golf," he said. "There was a discussion of the elimination of freshman sports, but at least for the moment we are restoring them based on the funding and the need basis. Some of our numbers say having freshman teams makes sense. We have to find out if there need to be additional cuts. It’s so hard to plan when you’re so in the dark. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to take a second look at the athletics program."
The scheduled start of the fall season, when teams can hold tryouts and practices and eventually scrimmages - that is, the date marked on pre-pandemic calendars - is still two full months away. Scenarios for restarting high school sports are in the earliest of days, with the NJSIAA creating two advisory task forces within the past week.
All options to mitigate these cuts are on the table, Bozza said, including pay-to-play participation fees.
Healy said Toms River has already developed a pay-to-play format and schedule, should it be needed, though he noted it could be a hardship to families with multi-sport athletes, to multi-sibling families or to the 30% of Toms River students whose families are at or below poverty.
Elsewhere, participation fees are even less viable. Seventy percent of Jersey City students, according to Walker, qualify for free and reduced lunches and wouldn't be able to afford to pay to play sports.
Decisions about high school sports and other programming, like everything else in the wake of this pandemic, won't come easily.
"We've never been in this situation before, and so it really is (uncomfortable). We operate based on anticipation," Walker said. "Planning is what we do. We have 30K students that we're responsible for and our position is to make sure that we develop plans to support the needs of the children across the board. The more you have to wait before you can execute your plans, the more difficult it becomes."
“To be a leader right now in this country, in this state - any leader - it’s a challenge. You know on your best day, you’re not going to please everybody with your decisions, but you have to make the right decisions.”
Adam Clark contributed to this story
Brian Deakyne may be reached at bdeakyne@njadvancemedia.com.
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