The Hammonton Gazette 09/17/14 Edition | Page 4

Blachford outlines reasons for re-start of Bacon lawsuit Wednesday, September 17, 2014 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3 SChOOL, from Page 1 “The community, and my faculty, my principals and teachers all understand that we cannot raise taxes in Hammonton enough to cover this. In fact, we are underfunded by $14.6 million. State funding has certainly not followed the children in Hammonton and it has resulted in this gap,” Blachford said. Blachford, referring to a report prepared for the Education Law Center using their Model District Program, said the district should have an additional 51 teachers, 12 administrators, six guidance counselors and two school nurses. “Right now, we have a limitation on the number of teachers and cannot reduce class size like we’d like to. We’re not able to imple- ment full-day pre-kindergarten programs as required under the School Funded Reform Act,” Blachford said. He also said the district’s gifted and talented and advanced placement classes were strained, as well as services for interventions in behavioral and academic needs and art and music experiences. The board unanimously approved the resolution to re-start the Bacon lawsuit following Blachford’s presentation. In other board news, the board unanimously passe