Defeated school budget now in town’s hands

Jackson committee will review $121M spending plan

BY JOYCE BLAY Staff Writer

BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer

For a fourth straight year, Jackson voters turned down the Board of Education’s proposed budget, while re-electing one board member and denying another incumbent a second term.

When voters went to the polls on April 19, a majority of them rejected the board’s proposed spending plan for the 2005-06 school year. The vote was 3,238 opposed to 2,496 in favor of the budget.

The Township Committee will now review the $121.1 million budget that the board has proposed for the coming school year. The school board was asking Jackson property owners to pay $56.8 million in local taxes to support the spending plan.

In the race for two three-year terms on the school board, voters re-elected Michael R. Hanlon to a second term and tapped his running mate, Barbara Fiero, for her first term on the panel.

Dan Gross lost his bid for a second three-year term.

“Unfortunately, I had a death in the family and I didn’t campaign [enough],” Gross said on April 21. “I think people were looking to meet [the candidates].”

Hanlon received 2,376 votes and Fiero received 2,315 votes in their successful bids for seats on the board.

Sal Duscio (1,624 votes), Todd Porter (1,537 votes), Gross (1,081 votes) and Marie Medina (868 votes) were unsuccessful in their bids for seats. Medina had actually dropped out of the race, but her name remained on the ballot.

The budget proposed an increase in the school tax rate of 12.55 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home assessed at $150,000 would have paid $188 more in school taxes in 2005-06 than in 2004-05 if the budget had been approved. The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 would have paid $376 more in school taxes in the coming year.

The district attributed the increase to a number of factors, including state aid that remained flat at $48.3 million and a continuing increase in enrollment.

The Township Committee will now review the budget and has the option to leave the budget as the board proposed it or recommend cuts to the spending plan. The board may accept the recommended amount to be cut or appeal the recommendation to the commissioner of education.

“It would be a slap in the face to everybody who voted [and not] the responsible thing to do to approve the budget as defeated,” Mayor Michael Broderick said. “We want to move this whole budget process forward and having an outsider [review] it” would be in everybody’s best interest, he said.

“Taxpayers have sent a message that they’re not happy with 12.5 cents,” Broderick said. “[However,] I don’t think that just cutting the entire amount is the responsible thing to do. One can only hope that everybody intelligently reviews the budget in a way that we know educational programs [that] have to be in place [are not cut].”

There is more at stake than the fate of the district’s educational programs. The board had sought funding to open Jackson Liberty High School in February 2006 instead of September 2006. The total cost of the additional staff needed to open JLHS in February 2006 would come to $1.3 million, or 2.25 cents of the proposed 12.55-cent increase in the defeated budget.

If the board opens JLHS in September 2006, the costs will be part of the 2006-07 school year budget.

Board of Education finance committee member Linda Lackay said on April 24 that the board had not yet discussed cutting funding in the budget that would have enabled the district’s new high school to open in February 2006 instead of September of that year or whether the budget’s reduction would come from other line items.

“At this point, everything is on the table,” Lackay said. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time [the budget was defeated] and we don’t know what the committee will recommend. The board all stood behind this budget, which we thought was a prudent one. However, we will work with taxpayers while continuing to provide a thorough and efficient education for the township’s children.”

Preliminary plans call for graduates of the Goetz Middle School to attend Jackson Memorial High School, while graduates of McAuliffe Middle School would attend Jackson Liberty High School, according to district spokeswoman Allison Erwin. However, no firm plans have been made, she said.

Hanlon said the board had hoped to phase in a complete opening of the new high school over a four-year period. He stressed that even if funding needed to open the new high school early was unavailable, the pressing need for more educational facilities in town would continue to be a priority.

“Do we pay for it now or do we pay for it later?” he asked. “The number of students in the high school will continue to grow, making it critical that [the new school] be opened as soon as possible.”

Despite voters’ defeat of the 2005-06 budget, Lackay was hopeful they would approve a referendum to fund the construction of a new middle school near the justice complex and an elementary school on the same site where the new high school is being constructed. That referendum could take place as soon as the fall.