Possible cuts in state aid in 2010-11 could mean a restructuring of the Howell K-8 School District’s administration and the elimination of non-mandated items such as courtesy busing, according to Superintendent of Schools Enid Golden said.
“We are going to have to look at things like class size,” Golden said at a recent Board of Education meeting. “We just have nowhere to go. It is going to be painful. Just about everything is on the table, even things that were sacred in the past.”
Howell board members unanimously approved a resolution that would allow administrators to appeal for an “adjustment” in state aid if the cuts are too severe. The resolution had to be submitted to the county superintendent’s office by March 1.
“No matter what decisions we make, we need to be aware of the negative impacts on the community,” board member Dr. Stephen M. Levine said. “What will be held most sacrosanct will be the education of our children. Everything else is up for discussion.”
Gov. Chris Christie recently announced that in order to close a gap in the state’s current (2010) budget, he was withholding state aid due to be paid to New Jersey school districts for the remainder of the 2009-10 school year. He directed school administrators to spend the surplus (savings) and reserve funds their districts had accumulated in order to pay current operating expenses.
Christie also faces the prospect of a multibillion-dollar gap in the state’s 2011 budget. He has indicated that school districts could face a significant reduction in their school aid package for 2010-11.
State aid figures to school districts for the coming school year are expected to be released on March 18.
School boards are in the process of developing their budgets for the next school year. Those budgets will be presented to the public during March and voted on by residents in the April 20 school election.
From now through June, Howell will have to use $1.2 million in savings to pay for current operating expenses. That reality will make the 2010-11 budget even harder to deal with, Levine said.
“What we are dealing with is a $1.2 million hole in our budget—based on the governor’s actions that we’ll be reduced in state aid next year,” he said. “That will have a major impact on the board. We are looking at the potential of a significant impact, through no responsibility of this Board of Education. The governor is taking our surplus in order to maintain the state’s surplus.”
In 2008 the board approved a three-year contract with the Howell Township Education Association (HTEA). The new deal gave HTEA members an average salary increase of 3.75 percent per year, according to district officials. The agreement between the board and the HTEA covers the academic years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Although there will be an increase in the total amount of money budgeted for teachers’ salaries each year, not every teacher in the district will receive the same percentage increase on his or her salary during the course of the contract.
An individual teacher’s percentage increase is based on the salary guide that is determined by the school board and the union every three years. Some HTEA members will receive a larger percentage increase and some union members will receive a smaller percentage increase on an annual basis.
The amount of the increase is determined by the employee’s years of service in the district and by his or her place on the Howell salary guide.
The contract was negotiated by the Board of Education’s Labor Committee (Valerie Rosenberg, Patricia Blood and Levine) and the HTEA Executive Board, along with the union’s representative Marc Abramson.
The HTEA has more than 1,000 members and includes teachers, custodians, support staff and teachers’ assistants.
“This board operates in an extremely conservative fiscal manner,” Levine said. “We budget on the basis of staff that are currently with us. If there are retirements, the board will hire new teachers at lower salaries. Those monies are put into reserve.”
Board member David G. Flaherty said the district would have to rely on the school tax levy to a greater degree than in the past.
“We cannot count on state aid anymore, period,” he said. “It is going to require a lot of patience on the part of the community over the next six months to get through this. We are going to have to make sacrifices — every single person, the parents, the employees. The last people we want to see make a sacrifice are the children.”
Voters last year rejected a $71.9 million tax levy that would have supported a $112.7 million budget. The Township Council later pared $1 million from the school tax levy. The cuts included reductions in building repairs, custodial supplies, natural gas, special service busing, salaries, general supplies, personnel advertising, maintenance and a number of other areas.
School officials also closed the Southard School because of declining enrollment and budgetary issues. The closing was expected to save $2 million this year, primarily in the reduction of 39 salaries. School district officials are looking for tenants for the building.
Blood said Monday that although Golden presented certain cost-cutting options to the board at a board finance committee last week, no final decisions will be made until Christie releases the state aid figures.
The board will have to submit a preliminary budget to the county schools superintendent, but the final numbers cannot be released to the public until after the state aid numbers are known, she said.
Blood, who was elected to five threeyear terms, said on March 1 that she has decided not to run for a sixth term this year.
Contact Patricia A. Miller