Cherry Hill, NJ - The Cherry Hill, NJ, school district is cutting 70 jobs, raising property taxes 7.4 percent, and staring down a $29 million deficit. In the middle of it, the district went to court to stop a local journalist from asking questions.
In February, the Board of Education filed a 128-page lawsuit in Camden County Superior Court against freelance journalist Ben Shore, his brother Daniel, and Shore Investigates LLC. The district claims Shore filed “numerous, repeated and vexatious” public records requests that disrupted its operations.
The total number of requests Shore filed in an entire year: fourteen. About one per month, sent to a district with a $256 million budget and roughly 1,000 employees. His brother Daniel, also named in the suit, filed one.
Shore wasn’t requesting anything unusual. He asked for invoices, legal bills, and video recordings of public board meetings. In other words, the paper trail showing how a public body spends public money.
The district wants to ban Shore, his brother, and his outlet from filing any records request for a year. It also wants the court to shut down a website Shore built that helps other residents file their own requests. Think about that for a second.. a public school district is asking a court to make it harder for citizens to obtain public records.
Now, in under two months, the struggling district has billed at least $5,346 fighting the case, before any trial. The bill for these legal services will go to the same taxpayers who just absorbed 70 job cuts and a $420 avg. tax hike.
The deeper number: nearly $3 million sat in the district’s legal reserve in June 2023. By June 2026, the district projects zero dollars, with no public accounting of where millions of dollars went. The invoices that would explain this spending are the exact type of records Shore was asking for when the district sued him.
As an attorney and chief editor of Shore Investigates, my work is rooted in transparency, accountability, and the public’s right to know how government institutions operate. Public records belong to the people. The Cherry Hill Public Schools matter was argued on June 4, and I am hopeful the court will issue a decision soon.
Whatever the court decides, the numbers are already on the record. The district has spent at least $5,346 and counting to limit one resident’s records requests, during a year in which it cut 70 positions, raised taxes the maximum the law allows, and exhausted the reserves that once held $35 million.