'You Rejected Us': Edison Dad Tells BOE After Budget Cuts Cost Pregnant Teacher Her Job

EDISON, NJ - The Edison Board of Education had already voted. The budget was passed, the positions were cut, the math had been done.

Matthew Pinho came anyway. He stood at the microphone on Tuesday night, during Teacher Appreciation Week, four days before Mother's Day, and made sure the board understood what the math had done to his family.

He broke down twice before he was done. When he composed himself and continued, the room was silent.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Give me a second."

Pinho, an Edison resident and New York City public school teacher, was addressing the board days after his wife, Gabriella, a second-grade teacher seven months pregnant with the couple's second child, received a non-renewal notice as part of the district's decision to cut approximately 80 staff positions to close a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.

"My wife, Ms. Gabriella Pinho, is not just a name on the list," he told the board. "She is a dedicated teacher, a member of the Edison community, a mother to our three-year-old son, Benjamin, and pregnant with our second child, a daughter we plan to name Everly. She deserves more than to be reduced to a line item on a budget that needs to be balanced."

The moment crystallized what the Edison budget crisis looks like beyond the spreadsheets and tax levy calculations. On April 28, the board voted 5-3 to approve a revised $352.3 million spending plan that raises the local tax levy by 6 percent and eliminates roughly 80 positions spanning teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators and support staff. The board had originally proposed a 12 percent tax hike on a $372 million budget before weeks of public backlash forced a revision.

For the Pinho family, the vote arrived at the worst possible time.

"Receiving this news during Teacher Appreciation Week and right before Mother's Day is nothing short of a slap in the face to educators and their families," Pinho said.

The couple moved to Edison in 2022 and bought what Pinho described as their dream home. Gabriella had spent six years teaching in New York City, where she earned tens of thousands of dollars more annually. They made a deliberate choice to step back financially so she could teach in the community where they were raising their family.

"We chose Edison," he said. "We didn't just move. We committed ourselves to this community."

In the weeks before her first school year, the couple spent hundreds of dollars out of pocket turning her classroom into what Pinho called "an oasis" for her students. She worked long hours throughout her pregnancy, he said — early mornings, late nights, always putting her students first.

Then came the pink slip.

"She loves this job and her students with every fiber in her being and in her heart," Pinho told the board. "And how is that dedication and love rewarded? This past Friday with a pink slip, at seven months pregnant, the week before Teacher Appreciation Week."

The consequences have cascaded quickly. The family is now weighing whether they can afford to stay in Edison. Pinho said the New Jersey paid family leave Gabriella had been paying into — and expected to draw on when she goes out on leave in September — no longer applies because the district did not renew her contract.

"The community that we love with all our hearts has rejected us. You rejected us, you rejected us, you rejected us," an emotional Pinho said.

Their three-year-old son, Benjamin, is being pulled from his North Edison preschool next month because without her income, the family can no longer cover tuition.

"We informed his preschool earlier today, and we cried the entire time," Pinho said. "He loves his friends, Skyler, Nathaniel — he loves them — and we're pulling him out next month. I can't afford it."

Then Pinho shared something he said he had not planned to.

The night they received the news, Gabriella woke in the middle of the night with cramping and bleeding. They rushed to the hospital, terrified for their unborn daughter.

"By the grace of God, the baby is okay," Pinho said. "The doctor said my wife's stress hormones were through the roof because she lost her job. No family should go through this."

He told the board he and Gabriella had debated whether to speak publicly at all. As an educator himself, Pinho said he knew firsthand the professional risks teachers take when they challenge a school district. He asked the board explicitly not to let his remarks affect his wife's future employment prospects.

"Those of you who know Gabriela know that she is the last person to rock the boat," he said. "I'm the one who rocks the boat. She simply wants to teach the children she so dearly loves."

He closed with three specific requests: that children of laid-off Edison employees be guaranteed placement in the preschool program; that non-renewed teachers be given first priority when openings arise from retirements or resignations; and that the board find cuts elsewhere.

"This is not just about balancing a budget," he said. "This is about the messaging you are sending — that the people who chose to invest in this community are expendable."

Several community members stood in solidarity behind him as he finished.

"The decent and good-hearted families affected by these budget cuts are not going to stay," Pinho warned. "They're going to leave Edison, and when they leave, they take with them the foundation that makes this district so strong."

The district's financial crisis has been driven by a combination of factors: a $6 million cumulative hit from state aid cuts over two years, $11 million less in available surplus, and $7 million in contractual obligations covering salaries, health benefits, out-of-district tuition and transportation. Business Administrator Jonathan Toth has warned the structural gap is not a one-year problem. Even with the 6 percent tax levy increase, he said, the district is collecting roughly $55 million less than its calculated local fair share obligation.

A separate pre-K drama unfolded the same night. The board initially rejected a $2.3 million state preschool grant in a procedural tangle — a "yes" vote meant rejecting the aid, while a "no" meant accepting it — before reversing course and voting unanimously to accept it. But accepting the grant left the district facing a new $3.7 million gap it has not yet explained how it will fill.

"That's not $50,000 — that's a big, big move," Toth said.

The board did not identify a funding source. Officials said the matter would be taken up at the next meeting.

For the Pinhos, the maneuvering was beside the point. They came to the meeting as a family on the edge of a decision they never expected to have to make.

"The life we built here is literally being pulled out from under our feet," Pinho said. "You still have a choice. You can still make this right."

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