Two school districts see different votes

Two school districts see different votes
Monmouth Regional budget fails, but voters approve Tinton Falls district plan
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.”

While Monmouth Regional’s budget failed, the Tinton Falls School District had the opposite result.

Tinton Falls School District Superintendent John Russo expressed gratitude to Tinton Falls and Shrewsbury Township voters for passing the school budget for the second straight year.

Voters passed the $28 million budget with a 1,326-1,247 vote during the April 20 election. The budget includes an $18.3 million tax levy.

“I am very pleased that the community once again in these troubling economic times made a statement that they support the schools of Tinton Falls,” Russo said. “I wouldn’t say I was surprised, but I certainly say that I don’t take for granted the community support.”

Russo said he was especially pleased with the results in Tinton Falls because of the many failed budgets across the state.

“Just across the board, votes were very tight one way or the other, and in some they were overwhelmingly no, and thank goodness we weren’t in that situation,” he said.

When Russo and the Board of Education presented the public with a tentative budget in March, they announced they would be forced to cut 18 staff positions, but Russo said they were able to reduce that number.

“We are losing a total of six positions, three full time, three part time,” he said.

Some of the additional cuts the district made to counteract staffing cuts include eliminating assemblies, field trips and reducing supplies.

“We are also taking field trips and assemblies out of the budget,” he said. “We did a very comprehensive line-by-line analysis of our budget.

“We looked at every aspect of our operating budget, from supplies to materials to whether or not we could postpone the purchase of textbooks,” he added. “We made appropriate percentage cuts in those areas, which was also a contributing factor in limiting the number of staff cuts we had to make.”

Russo said he hopes organizations around town will support the schools for some assemblies.

“We are hoping that the assemblies will be supplemented by our parent-teacher organizations and our parent music associations,” he said. “They have been generous in the past in providing additional assemblies in each of our schools.

“We are hoping they will be able to at least bring in some assemblies for our children.”

Russo said the district has previously thought about either reducing or charging a fee for sports and activities, but it is something the district was able to avoid.

“We actually were able to bring all of the co-circulars and all of the athletics back in, and they are not going to be a ‘pay for play,’ ” he said. Russo said there is some concern thatmany other local schools would be cutting their sports programs.

“We do have some concern on the athletic end as to whether or not there will be enough teams to play against,” he said. “Many middle schools have had to cut or curtail their athletics.

“We are reaching out to the other middle schools that we normally participate against to survey them. We don’t have any results yet.”

Voters also elected Board of Education members in both districts.

In Tinton Falls, incumbent Kenneth Hagar and newcomers William Holobowski and Susan Fisher were elected to the three open seats.

Thomas Neff, Anthony Schaible and Mary Anne Linder were all re-elected to the board at Monmouth Regional School District.