District officials grapple with failed school budget

Officials seek compromise with sending towns

BY JENNA O’DONNELL Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS – Monmouth Regional High School Superintendent Jamie Cleary updated borough officials on the status of the district’s defeated budget during the May 6 council meeting.

“Unfortunately we lost the budget by only 43 votes between the three municipalities of Tinton Falls, Eatontown and Shrewsbury Township,” Cleary told council members before updating them on the actions being taken by the district administration and Board of Education members.

Cleary explained that Eatontown voters failed the budget by 100-plus votes, Tinton Falls voters passed it by over 100 votes and Shrewsbury Township failed the spending plan by 52 votes, which led to a combined failure of 43 votes.

Only 9 percent of those registered to vote in Eatontown came out to vote during the budget elections, Cleary said.

Monmouth Regional High School, which educates students from the three towns, had its $25.4 million spending plan voted down in the April 15 election.

Of the 1,954 residents who came out to vote at the polls, 51.04 percent voted no on the 2008-09 school budget.

Business Administrator Maria Parry said that Eatontown and Shrewsbury Township were the towns that voted against the budget.

Cleary thanked Tinton Falls voters for their support of the budget.

“We are looking at Eatontown and trying to see if a penny can be saved,” Cleary said. “A penny for Eatontown would be about $245,000, but it’s a regional school system, so that penny really transposes to about half a million dollars for the regional district.”

Cleary said that administration and Board of Education members had found that the figure would obstruct the educational process at Monmouth Regional.

“We are waiting optimistically for Eatontown to get back to the high school and let us know what specific lines council wants to look at,” Cleary said.

He added that the budget has been turned over to auditors for review.

“My only concern is that they’re probably looking at fund balance,” Cleary said. “And if they’re looking to try and see that much money taken from the budget this year, it’s only going to affect education two years out. How does it survive next year?”

Cleary explained that the fund balance exists to offset taxes for the following year and consists of any leftover funds that may result from running the district well.

“With the crude figures coming from the federal government in aid, and the state substantially decreasing state aid, we’re depending on just keeping up with that,” Cleary said. “For the budget this year, the largest share of the money goes to salaries. We presented to Eatontown Council that our salaries show a decrease of $114,000.”

Cleary anticipated that the district would see significant problems with the decrease in state aid. He said that impact aid from the federal government has declined in the past five years.

“We are not a super aid district anymore,” Cleary said, adding that he was “very concerned” with the ramifications of cutting a significant amount from the current figure.

“Two of the last three years, because of Eatontown’s failure, we’ve been caught up in the situation where we’ve been trying to defend what I feel is a very structured, sound budget,” Cleary said.

Monmouth Regional faced a similarly close vote for the 2007-08 budget vote, but had been able to see that budget passed, according to Parry.

“Keep in mind, Tinton Falls is 55 percent of the percent shares of the students attending that school system,” Cleary said. “Eatontown represents 43 percent of the shares, and the other percent shares go to Shrewsbury Township.”

Council members asked questions primarily with regard to the procedure going forward.

“We have had this situation in the past,” said Cleary. “If for some reason, after Eatontown studies the budget, they realize that it is sound and is not a realistic figure to cut, then I would hope that we can come up with some type of a compromise for the dollar amount.”

If the municipalities fail to agree by the May 19 mandate, the matter will be sent to the state Education Commission, Cleary said.

Councilman Paul Ford said that from a procedure standpoint, the council was waiting for direction from Eatontown.

“In the past, there’s been some type of recommendation for some type of cut,” Ford said. “It’s a little different process this year because they have specific earmarks of the amount that they want. So in my opinion, they need to take the lead. They need to come back to us, and we can determine if we find that it’s devastating to the schools. There’s no way we want to put our schools at risk.”

Councilman Duane Morrill said that since Tinton Falls children would be affected, he wanted to know what was going on with the budget.

“You had mentioned that 55 percent of the kids are coming from Tinton Falls and while Eatontown is willing to let their children do without, this affects us, so I’d like to know exactly what they’re going to cut out of this budget,” Morrell said.

Cleary extended his thanks to the constituents of Tinton Falls for their support for the importance of education through the budget.