Monmouth Regional district reworks budget

Monmouth Regional district reworks budget
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — A failed budget has left Monmouth Regional School District officials scrambling for a plan.

District Business Administrator Maria Parry said last week she is revisiting the defeated budget plan after voters in Tinton Falls, Eatontown and Shrewsbury Township shot down the $25.6 million budget during the April 20 election.

“I have to prepare a defeated budget packet, and then it is going to go to the council,” she said. “We have to have a consensus by May 19.

“They can either recommend no cuts or they can recommend a cut,” she added. “We either have to accept it or try to say why we can’t accept it.

“It goes to all three towns, even though it passed in Tinton Falls.”

Parry defended the budget, which called for an $18.7 million tax levy.

“I think it was a very good budget,” she said. “It was the same tax levy as 2009-2010, and I think that there are just some people that have the philosophy that they are just going to vote no because it is the only budget that they can vote on.”

According to the Monmouth County website, the budget failed with a 1,830-1,885 vote. Parry said the budget passed in Tinton Falls but failed in both Eatontown and Shrewsbury Township.

“It passed in Tinton Falls and failed by two in Shrewsbury Township and it failed in Eatontown,” she said.

Parry said the absentee ballots had not yet been counted, but she called the chances of having enough absentee ballots to pass the budget a “very outside chance.”

“I don’t think there is going to be enough absentee ballots that would carry that over,” she said. Due to the state budget crunch, state aid to the district was cut by 28 percent, or $1.2 million.

Parry said that necessitated making cuts in the budget the district wouldn’t normally make.

“There were five positions cut, three by attrition and two were because of budget cuts,” she said. “Field trips for student activities and field trips were cut in half for the regular budget, and supplies were cut by 30 percent.”

Parry said the big increases in the budget came from escalating salaries and benefits costs.

“I have contractual obligations under salaries and health benefits,” she said. “I try to beat the health insurance agents up as much as possible but, unfortunately, they’ve gone up.”

She said teachers and the district are in contract negotiations, making the budget tougher to configure.

“The teachers’ contract ends this year, so we are currently in negotiations,” she said. “I can only put a guess on what I think; I can’t even go by a guide.”

Incumbents Thomas Neff, Anthony Schaible and Mary Anne Linder were re-elected to the Board of Education of the Monmouth Regional School District.