District’s resource committee discusses aid.
By: Lea Kahn
The Lawrence Township School District is in line to receive $750,000 in additional funding from the state but school district officials likely won’t make a decision on how to spend it until December.
The Lawrence Township Board of Education’s Resource Committee, which has been studying the issue, was expected to discuss it with the full school board Wednesday as The Lawrence Ledger went to press.
In a June 25 letter to Schools Superintendent Max Riley, state Sen. Shirley Turner said she had obtained $750,000 in state funding for Lawrence "to help ease the impact of the loss of revenue" resulting from Washington Township’s decision to halt sending its high school students to Lawrence High School.
Sen. Turner also wrote to Dr. Riley that she hoped the money would be used by the school district to "continue its vital early literacy and preschool programs and reinstate personnel whose positions were cut" by the school board as a result of the defeat of the 2004-05 school district budget.
The school board eliminated 19 full-time positions and reduced the hours or transferred 44 other employees to help close a $1.5 million spending gap in the $55 million school district budget in June, according to district figures.
Township Council reviewed the defeated school board budget and cut $174,000 from the spending plan in May. Under state law, defeated school board budgets are sent to the municipal governing body for review.
Township Council has expressed its belief that the money should be used for property tax relief. At a public hearing on the failed school district budget in May, Deputy Mayor Pam Mount made it clear that any additional money received by the school district would be used for that purpose following a 16-cent property tax increase levied by the school district. The tax rate hike was reduced to 15 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The $750,000 in additional money was the result of school district officials’ decision to contact Sen. Turner for help at the beginning of this year in the face of an impending revenue shortfall, said former school board President Mary DiMartino.
School district officials realized there would be a shortfall because Washington Township was ending its sending/receiving relationship with the Lawrence district, Ms. DiMartino said.
Washington started withdrawing its high school students with the freshman class this year. Washington students currently enrolled at LHS will complete their high school education in Lawrence.
Meanwhile, Dr. Riley said, school district officials are concerned that the promised money may not make its way into the school district’s coffers. He said he is concerned that incoming Gov. Richard Codey may freeze spending out of concern for the fiscal welfare of the state.
School district officials are focusing on ensuring that the $750,000 check arrives, so there will be something for the school board to talk about, Dr. Riley said. And while Sen. Turner and Township Council have divergent desires for the money, they are not necessarily incompatible, he said.
Dr. Riley said the school board may consider allowing the money to go into the surplus account. The school board cannot spend the money to rehire staff, because the 2004-05 budget has taken effect.
"We can’t spend the money on staff that have not been budgeted," he said. "When the schools get unexpected revenue, it goes into surplus. It becomes a revenue for the next budget. If it goes into surplus, it automatically becomes tax relief."
The money becomes tax relief in the sense that it reduces the amount of the tax levy that the school board might otherwise have sought, Dr. Riley said. He added that he is "reasonably certain" that this is what Township Council meant when it called for the money to be used for tax relief.