Mat-Ab appeals council cuts to school budget
School officials say
cuts were too deep
to sustain
ABERDEEN — According to Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District officials, the proposed cuts to the budget are too deep for the district to accept.
The Board of Education started the process of appealing the $914,300 cut by the Aberdeen and Matawan councils to the county and state educational authorities.
According to Board President Gerald Donaghue, the school board voted unanimously to appeal the cuts at a meeting last week.
"The amount far exceeded what we had hoped for. We didn’t have a lot to begin with," said Donaghue.
"It’s not like we have all these extras like swimming or golf or ice hockey. There really was not a lot there to be cut," he said.
"Any cut for us right now just isn’t going to do us any good," added Donaghue.
The two municipal councils reviewed the $46.7 million budget for cuts, as obligated by law, after the voters defeated the tax levy by a margin of over two to one at the annual school elections in April.
According to municipal officials, the amount cut was in proportion to the large voter turnout in opposition to the budget.
Cuts recommended under the $914,300 include the elimination of full-day kindergarten, the elimination of a proposed new supervisory position at the high school, savings the district would incur by switching to a five year lease/purchase option for text books, and savings expected from the teacher retirements.
With full-day kindergarten on the chopping block, many angry parents turned out to protest the cuts at a joint meeting of the school board and Matawan and Aberdeen councils May 16.
Municipal officials caught flack from an enraged crowd after all of the Aberdeen Township Council and half of the Matawan Borough Council walked out of the meeting when the school board refused to turn off the camera that videotapes its meetings for broadcast to a local cable access channel.
Municipal officials from both towns said that they would have been violating existing policy by appearing on camera.
At last week’s board meeting, school officials noted that they must appeal the cut in its entirety or not at all, and that an appeal to save only full-day kindergarten would not be possible.
School officials also noted that the board must live with the cuts until a final decision on the appeal is rendered.
If the appeal process goes all the way to the state commissioner of education, officials said that the decision may not be known until late summer or even early fall.
Donaghue told the crowd of concerned parents at the meeting not to give up hope.
"You never know what can happen before September," he said.