Parents and staff decry cuts to wellness center and special-education supports after Collingswood budget vote

Dozens of parents, school staff and students told the Collingswood Public School District board on April 29 that cuts tied to the newly adopted budget will damage special-education services and eliminate the district’s secondary wellness center.

Isaac Mendelson, the program evaluator and school social worker who ran the middle/high school wellness center, said the center carried an active caseload of more than 100 students, saw three to five daily walk-ins and managed several mental-health crises each week. "This loss of this support will not be theoretical. It will have immediate and serious consequences for the students who rely on it," Mendelson said.

Multiple speakers from the audience — teachers, parent advocates and school counselors — warned that reducing certified special-education staff will impede the district’s ability to meet IEP requirements and could trigger state complaints or compensatory service costs. Teacher and union leaders described cases where certified special-education teachers were listed among positions slated for elimination and urged transparency about staffing plans to ensure legally required services remain available.

Student and family testimony highlighted immediate emotional impacts. A student who spoke during the student report said peers feel "confused" and underinformed about unification and the effect of reductions on day-to-day school life. Parents asked how class sizes would be managed and how pull-out and co-teaching supports would be preserved when staff numbers drop.

Administrators acknowledged the community’s concerns and said they prioritized minimizing staff impacts when possible, restoring three student-facing positions after negotiations, and seeking shared-service savings with Oaklyn. The administration stressed that the wellness center funding had been largely dependent on federal grant dollars that were canceled and that sustaining the center internally was not currently budget-feasible without additional local revenue.

Several speakers urged the board to accelerate community engagement and to prioritize mental-health and special-education positions in any operational referendum. The district said it would pursue additional community outreach over the summer and begin planning referendum language that would focus on student-facing priorities.

Ending: Community members pledged to organize and press for changes at the state and local level; the board said it would pursue outreach and advocacy but offered no immediate reversal of cuts approved with the budget vote.

Representative quotes from the public record: "We are choosing children’s well-being — not budget lines," said a parent at public comment; "If we cannot protect and prioritize our children's mental health now, then what does that say about us as a community?" said Isaac Mendelson.

The meeting record and the district's presentation slides — referenced during the meeting — were posted to the district website for further review by parents and advocates.