Voters reject school budget by wide margin

Budget fails by 1,922 to 1,347

By:Sally Goldenberg
   With only a handful of residents publicly voicing opposition and a staunch Board of Education critic supporting the proposed school budget, Superintendent of Schools Robert Gulick said he didn’t see it coming.
   On Tuesday, voters rejected the proposed school budget for the second consecutive year, leaving Dr. Gulick, the board and the Township Committee with the task of reassessing the spending plan for the 2003-04 school year.
   "We were not anticipating a defeat of our budget," Dr. Gulick said.
   By a vote of 1,922 to 1,347, voters rejected the $85.3 million proposal, which would have raised school taxes by $210 for homeowners with property assessed at $325,000. The tax levy in the proposal was $56.8 million, up from $51.5 million last year.
   "Every district (within the township) rejected this, so I feel vindicated because of that," said resident Michael Detsis, who has regularly spoken out against the proposal.
   "You don’t have to be a Gallup Pollster to understand that part of last night was the general economic condition," Dr. Gulick said.
   Finance Committee Chairman Steven Sloan, who spearheaded cuts to Dr. Gulick’s proposed budget, blamed the defeat in part on inadequate state aid.
   "This is the second consecutive year of inadequate state funding that we’ve experienced," Mr. Sloan said. The state Education Department promised a 0.2 percent increase in aid for the upcoming school year.
   "We felt that we prepared a lean, no-frills school budget and we even considered a second question," he added, referring to the $600,000 synthetic turf, which also failed.
   The board had cut $471,956 in items from Dr. Gulick’s proposal, ranging from faculty computers to world language textbooks, to a new high school guidance counselor.
   Dr. Gulick said he was unable to include sufficient hands-on science materials for the classrooms in his proposal.
   Looking toward the future, Mr. Sloan said, "I think next year the budget will pass once the rolling reassessment program is on a hiatus."
   For several years, the township has reassessed the value of most homes. Since values are on the rise, property taxes inevitably follow suit.
   But some residents insist the budget was too high and say they voted against it because spending must be trimmed.
   "My sense, and I repeatedly brought it up in Board of Education meetings, is that the responsibility of the board is to reflect the will of the township. They simply went to a place that wasn’t supported," Mr. Detsis said.
   If the budget is as lean as it could be without jeopardizing the core education of the students, then the board did not communicate its needs to the people, Mr. Detsis said.
   "It’s clear to me that the Board of Education and the administration have failed to communicate enough information about the spending," he said, pointing to what he interprets as vague answers from board members regarding spending.
   "It’ll be interesting to see what the township will do with this," he said.
   Mayor Anthony Gwiazdowski spoke to that point Wednesday, saying he will suggest small cuts that add up to large savings.
   "I’d like to have every teacher, every administrator, every person in the Board of Education who’s responsible for anything take a look at what they actually physically need," he said.
   For example, he said, the district could save money on office supplies, sharing one central copy machine in the board office and turning off light switches before leaving work every day.
   And while these savings may be small individually, they will add up to a significant budget reduction, he added.
   One cut he hopes the district avoids is the $1 million courtesy busing plan.
   "That’s the easy approach. That’s the cop-out approach," he said.
   Last year, the district threatened to cut courtesy busing when the budget failed, he said. It was reinstated after parent upheaval.
   "I hope they don’t do that (again) just to have their shock felt by the people," he said.
   When the township cut $1.2 million from the defeated school budget last year, additional sports teams and the then-$400,000 FieldTurf were among the first items to go.
   Mr. Gwiazdowski said the cuts this year will unlikely affect education.
   "There’s always a place to go to save money," he said. "The educational process can’t be touched."
   But Dr. Gulick said any cuts could hurt educational opportunities for students.
   "When we start cutting an already significantly reduced budget, I’m fearful that that’s going to have an impact on the education of our children," he said.
   Mr. Sloan said the board will appeal the township’s recommendation to the state if board members deem the proposed cuts to be too steep in the realm of education.