Council debating school budget

Jamesburg tries to find ways around defeated spending plan.

By: Al Wicklund
JAMESBURG — Mayor Tony LaMantia and the Borough Council will be looking at possible ways to cut the defeated $10.24 million school budget following a recent three-hour meeting with state officials at Borough Hall.
   "We’re still going over different aspects of dealing with a school budget. No decisions have been made," the mayor said Tuesday.
   Mayor LaMantia said the April 25 talks with state Department of Education staff were informative, but not the end of the process.
   He said he and council President Joe Jennings, Deputy Education Commissioner Dwight Pfenning and Richard Rosenthal, assistant commissioner for the Department of Education’s Division of Finance, discussed a wide range of topics, but focused on school budgets and taxes.
   He said there was much information provided and a lot to be considered in the weeks ahead.
   When the Board of Education’s proposed $10.34 million budget was defeated, 267-128, in the April 15 school election, the rejected school budget became the Borough Council’s problem.
   Under New Jersey law, a defeated school budget is given to the municipal governing body for whatever action the governing body sees necessary.
   Richard Vespucci of the Department of Education’s Public Information Office said Wednesday state law requires a municipality’s elected officials to recommend specific cuts.
   He said once upon a time, council members could make cuts in funds without regard to how it affected the budget.
   "Then, they could just pick a number of dollars to be cut. Now, with the requirement for making cuts in specific areas, it’s important for municipal officials to have a better understanding of school budgets," Mr. Vespucci said.
   Jamesburg’s Borough Council has until May 19 to take action on the school budget.
   Last year, a $9.46 million budget, with a 34-cent increase in the school tax rate, was defeated by the voters and the Borough Council managed to trim 2 cents from the tax rate by having the borough provide grounds maintenance and other services without charging the school district.
   This year, the Borough Council faces reducing a budget that had contained a proposed 43-cent increase in the school tax rate.
   Had the budget passed, the school tax rate would have been $2.64 per $100 of assessed valuation. Under that rate, the owner of a house assessed at the borough average of $123,000 would have paid $3,247 in school taxes, an increase of $529. If the budget had been approved by voters, the school tax rate would have risen 75 cents in the last two years.
   The district expects $3,551,623 in state aid for next year, including $619,687 for special education aid. Even with the increase, the budget had called for the cancellation of after-school sports programs and the elimination of a librarian position currently shared by Grace M. Breckwedel and John F. Kennedy schools. The librarian would take over a classroom teaching position next year, school officials said.
   Much of the increase in spending comes from an anticipated $619,808 increase in spending for out-of-district placement for special education students and tuition for high school students attending Monroe Township High School.
   In October, the district faced a $228,000 budget shortfall that forced it to lay off eight staff members, including four teachers, a vice principal, a custodian and a secretary, to handle increases in health costs and cover unexpected costs related to sending eight additional special education students to out-of-district schools.
   Anticipated rises in health-care costs for teachers also were included in the plan.
   Mayor LaMantia said he and the council are committed to continue to work to do the best they can to deal fairly with a budget that affects taxpayers and schoolchildren.