School districts react to state aid cuts

School districts react to state aid cuts
Districts rework budgets for submission to county
BY ANDREW DAVISON & KENNY WALTER Staff Writers
The state Department of Education released state aid figures to school districts March 18, with some districts sustaining cuts of up to 100 percent in state aid compared to last year.

In the face of aid cuts across districts, the 2010-11 state budget still grants approximately $70 million more in state funds to education aid than last year.

District administrators had a four-day turnaround period to submit tentative budgets to the Monmouth County Executive Superintendent’s Office by March 22 for review.

The Ocean Township School District will be receiving close to $3.4 million in state aid for 2010-11, a decrease of 33 percent compared to last year.

Ocean Township Superintendent Thomas Pagano said last week the district was prepared for a decrease in state aid, but officials were not prepared for the amount cut.

“We have prepared for a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario, but this worst-case scenario is even worse than the worst-case scenario we have prepared for,” he said. “We were told to prepare for a 15 percent reduction, so we said we’d better be prepared for 20.”

Pagano said the district will have a budget prepared for the March 30 public hearing.

Pagano pointed out that the aid decrease is compounded by the requirement that districts use a portion of their surplus funding to combat the loss of state aid for the 2009 fiscal year.

“That $3.4 million is coupled with the $2.1 million that they have already taken away from us from this year’s surplus,” Pagano said. “That is $2.1 million that we would have put toward next year’s budget.

“So we have a $5.5 million loss of revenue that we have to grapple with as we form this budget.”

Pagano said district officials have not decided where to make cuts, but will be considering all options.

“We have to take a look at all areas of the budget including personnel, line accounts, technology, transportation, administration,” he said. “We have to take a look at all areas of the budget and look to reduce them.”

He acknowledged that the district will be forced lay off staff.

“Most of the school budget is made up of personnel, salaries and benefits, so that’s where we have to go,” he said. “There absolutely will be [layoffs].

“We are trying as best we can through attrition, through retirements and resignations,” he said. “It is going to be a mix of layoffs and cost reductions.”

Robert A. Green Jr., business administrator for the Eatontown School District, said last week he and his colleagues had to go “back to the table to sharpen [their] pencils.” Eatontown’s tentative budget anticipated a 15 percent reduction in state aid. The district’s state aid was cut by 22.7 percent, with the district receiving $5,389,794 in aid for 2010-2011.

Green said district officials are currently in the process of re-evaluating the budget to find another $448,000 to cut. Eatontown’s public hearing on the school budget will be held on Monday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial School, 7 Grant Ave.

A spokeswoman for the Monmouth Regional High School District in Tinton Falls said officials would not comment on the budget until after the public budget hearing on March 30 at 7:45 p.m. at the school, located at Norman J. Field Way. Monmouth Regional’s state aid was cut by 28 percent, with the district in line to receive state aid in the amount of $4,764,419 for 2010-11.

The Long Branch School District, an Abbott District, had aid cut by $2.7 million or roughly 5.4 percent, bringing their 2010- 11 state aid figure to $47.3 million.

The West Long Branch School District lost all state aid for 2010-11 after receiving $467,323 in aid last year.

The Monmouth Beach School District had state aid cut by 91.4 percent.

The district will receive $22,190 in special education aid for 2010-11.

Aid to the Shore Regional High School District was cut drastically. Last year the district received $786,378, but received $42,075 this year.

Faced with a multibillion dollar budget gap, Gov. Chris Christie said his administration was required to make hard choices about the biggest category of spending in the state budget — state aid to public school districts.

For 2010-11, Christie said public school districts would receive approximately $820 million less than last year, as announced during a joint session of the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly on March 16.

The governor explained no school district in New Jersey would face a reduction in aid greater than 5 percent of its school budget.

“I am also proposing legislation to finally give school districts the power they have repeatedly asked for in collective bargaining and in setting employee benefits so that they can lower the costs of their budget without affecting learning in the classroom,” he said.

Christie also proposed reforms to the public sector itself, explaining employee costs, health care costs, retirement costs and a “failure to set priorities” have contributed to “out of control” state spending growth.

He also noted every school district employee should pay a reasonable portion of their health care costs, like New Jerseyans in the private sector.

“If we do not end this dual system, state and local government will have to raise taxes endlessly to pay for it,” Christie said. “Teachers are not the problem. They get it. Trenton special interests are the problem and we must stand up to them.”

According to the Department of Education (DOE), school districts will need to present their budgets to the public before any of the governor’s spending reforms can be acted upon by the Legislature.

On Feb. 18 the New Jersey commissioner of education advised all school districts to anticipate a 15 percent decrease in state aid revenue in preparing their budgets.

Christie also directed that all school districts use a portion of their surplus funds to offset withheld state aid.


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