Sayreville will have to sustain its operations through the end of the school year using its surplus funds instead of the state aid that was anticipated.
The move comes in light of an executive order from Gov. Chris Christie that froze $475 million in aid for school districts. Christie has also told districts to expect a 10 to 15 percent cut in state aid for the next school year, and Sayreville school officials said they will have to re-evaluate their 2010-11 budget and reduce costs accordingly.
“We are standing up proudly and saying, ‘Yes sir,’ ” Sayreville Board of Education President Michael Macagnone said. “We have no choice.”
The district has taken a revenue hit of $596,000 because of the freeze in aid. But that half-million can be absorbed within the operating budget, Macagnone said. The district, he said, has “always been very efficient” and runs $11 million under state adequacy levels, meaning it spends millions less on average compared to other districts in the state.
“So I believe Sayreville will do quite well,” he said.
The district may be in good shape right now, but concerns may arise if Sayreville’s aid is cut by 15 percent, Macagnone said. The governor is expected to announce the actual state aid figures later this month.
“If that happens in Sayreville, we’re going to have to seriously take a look at it, and it’s probably going to affect existing staff. I don’t see how it can’t,” Macagnone said.
The majority of the school budget is spent on salaries and benefits, he said, and that is where the district is most likely going to have to look for cuts. Increases in fixed costs such as teachers’ salaries and benefits, as well as utilities and maintenance, make up about 90 percent of the budget.
“Any school district will tell you the majority of money is in the staff,” Macagnone said. “We hate to [consider staff reductions], but we still have to operate the school district.”
The district will do everything possible to avoid increasing class size, the board president said. But if the full cut proposed by Christie does hit the district, staff members will most likely have to be let go and class sizes will have to be increased, he said.
“Unfortunately, staff members directly relate to class size, so reducing the number of staff members results in increasing class size,” said Kevin Ciak, the longest-serving school board member.
Ciak said that if aid is cut by as much as 10 to 15 percent, “virtually every area of the budget would be affected, which will ultimately mean that textbooks and curriculum are updated less frequently, and class sizes will increase.”
There are about 779 staff members in the entire district, which serves approximately 5,924 students.
“The bottom line is our school doors are still going to open. There will just have to be more kids in each class,” Macagnone said. “There may be no other choice.”
The school district would also cut back on consumables, paper and capital projects, Macagnone said.
“We’re going to do the same with less,” he said.
The Board of Education released a draft of the proposed 2010-11 school budget on Feb. 8, only a few short days before Christie’s announcement. The draft budget allocates money for a part-time computer technician, maintenance personnel, more special education teachers, and additional physical education and science teachers in the high school. The proposed budget shows a 1.93 percent local tax levy increase, amounting to a $55 tax increase on the average home, assessed at $144,000.
“With a budget proposed with less than a 2 percent tax increase, reductions in state aid will continue to shift more of the funding burden back to local property taxpayers, which ultimately hurts those people living on a fixed income,” Ciak said. “We need the burden of education transitioned from local property taxes.”
Sayreville could increase its tax levy further to reach the 4 percent cap, assuming the state keeps the cap at 4 percent, but the amount of the increase will depend on the amount of aid received, Ciak said.
“I think there is a real focus in this economy to keep the increase as low as possible while still providing for a quality education for our children,” Ciak said. “Getting to a 2 percent increase required us to cut items that would improve the quality of education in the district, such as items relating to technology. But I believe we need to be conscious of the current economy.”
The proposed budget shows an expected $21,948,444 of revenue from state aid, which is the same amount that the school received this year. If aid is cut by 15 percent, that number would be reduced to approximately $18,656,178.