Fate of nurse jobs weighs on district

By: Cara Latham
   PLUMSTED — Because of a possible new state cap on the tax levy, school officials may have to place 12 questions on the April ballot, including one to reinstate two school nurse positions they were forced to cut from the preliminary budget.
   Superintendent Jerry North said Tuesday that the 12 questions would reinstate a variety of programs including "everything from personnel positions to extracurriculars, to child study team, to administration, to supplies and materials, to technology," that had to be cut from the budget in order to stay below the tax levy cap.
   "Now, we had to make a decision on how we were going to keep pace with what we’re going to do to keep the district moving forward," he said. "The only way we could do it was to write separate questions."
   In addition, "any money you used for surplus doesn’t get calculated into the 4 percent," he said. "Last year, we used $2.4 million."
   School officials are still waiting for answers to questions they have regarding the 2007-08 budget because of the proposed new 4 percent state cap on tax revenue increases. The cap, which was approved by the Legislature — the Assembly approved it in January and the Senate approved it in February — would replace a 3 percent spending cap. It is awaiting Gov. Jon Corzine’s signature.
   Since the school district cannot go above the 4 percent cap, the in-process 2007-08 budget is "actually below last year’s budget," Dr. North said.
   He could not go into details about the ballot questions, he said, because school officials were trying to get a waiver from the state to allow them to go over the 4 percent cap to put the items, including funding for all four school nurse positions, back into the budget.
   Dr. North said that while the school district has created a tentative budget, it has not formally been approved by Ocean County Superintendent Bruce Greenfield. Therefore, he also could not release any of the budget figures yet.
   The school board was expected to introduce its final budget Wednesday night, after Messenger-Press press time, and discuss the final outcome of the ballot questions, as well as what items the county recommends to be put back into the budget, Dr. North said.
   School officials have to cut the items and place them as questions on the ballots "if they did not give us a waiver and allow us to put some stuff back into (the budget) to get us over 4 percent," he said.
   If the waiver is denied, "we would have to remove these from our base budget," he said. "The only way they could be put back in is for the voters to vote on it."
   The Board of Education has appealed to the state because it is $957 below the state-mandated amount it has to spend on its students, which is between $9,000 and $9,700 per student, he said.
   The process to "get that situation fixed" has been ongoing, and school officials met Monday with the county education superintendent for the third time to try to make changes in the regular budget, Dr. North said. But, they were expected to hear back from the county before the school board meeting Wednesday.
   The 12 extra ballot questions were to give voters the opportunity to reinstate the programs that were removed, as well as vote on enhancements to existing programs.
   In the meantime, the school board is appealing for relief, as school officials think there would be "no way to pass 12 separate questions," Dr. North said.
   Right now, the district is "seeking permission to have the nurses removed from the ballot questions," he said, adding that they are also seeking to have the other ballot question items put back into the budget. However, that is also not finalized.
   "Right now, I hope there’s four" nurses, Dr. North said. "Nothing has been approved yet. Tomorrow night, I hope there’s not even nurses on the issues."
   Plumsted resident Lynda DiPasquale said she was concerned about the possibility of only having two nurses available in a district that has four schools. She said if there were only two nurses in the district, school officials might have to call an ambulance if a kid is seriously sick or injured in one of the schools where a nurse is not present.
   "My concern is we have one ambulance driver and one first aid worker during the day," she said. "If there’s a car accident, or a kid who fell (in the playground), who are they going to respond to first?"
   Ms. DiPasquale, who, soon will have three students attending three separate schools in the district, said she wants the school nurse positions to be put back into the budget.
   "I really care about every school having a nurse," she said.
   If a ballot question is approved by voters April 17, it becomes part of the district’s working budget. If it’s not approved, for one year, it can go to the Township Committee, "and they can reinstate it or not reinstate it," Dr. North said.