By Stephanie Vaccaro, Staff Writer
If the turnout of the public budget forum Tuesday night was any indication, the Princeton Board of Education has its work cutout for it as it puts together the budget for the 2011-2012 year.
”We have a significant issue again this year,” Finance Chair Charles Kalmbach said to a full house. “This year our projections are that we have a $2 million hole to fill in our budget.”
”Also, with respect to revenue, we have a mountain of mandates from the state and federal government,” Mr. Kalmbach said. “Most of those mandates came initially with funding for a certain amount of time. But those mandates eventually go unfunded.”
Suggestions included exploring the possibility of seeking payment in lieu of taxes from Princeton University, continued gifts from the Institute for Advanced Studies, generating more revenues from sporting events, instituting activity fees and the sale of the Valley Road building.
The question of raising teachers’ co-pay for their prescription benefits was raised, as was the impact of the national healthcare law. The question of more efficient busing was raised, as was renting out the facilities in the summer and on weekends. The question of sustainability and recycling was raised, as was the potential effect of consolidation of the two Princetons.
Also, the question was raised about the possibility of re-absorbing the students from the Princeton Charter School.
On the expense side, there is a significant issue with our charter school, Mr. Kalmbach said. “You’ll note from our public finances that this year taxpayers are funding the charter school in the equivalent of $4.5 million.”
”That’s not an issue for tonight because there’s nothing we can do about that in the next six months,” Mr. Kalmbach said.
But the topic of charter schools took up a portion of the night’s conversation, despite it having no immediate impact.
”As for specific suggestions for efficiencies, cost savers and new revenue streams, there were several concrete suggestions and many more being filed with us via e-mail,” Superintendent Judy Wilson said of the forum. “No single recommendation will dramatically change the challenges of the budget, but many combined will definitely make a significant dent!
”The board members and I were appreciative of the interest and level of discussion among the four to five dozen people who attended,” said Ms. Wilson. “Awareness of the issues is critical as we head into the budget development process.”
”This is not just a short-term challenge, either,” Ms. Wilson said. “So those with longer term recommendations should also bring their ideas forward.”
Additional suggestions can be e-mailed to [email protected].
The public budget forum was preceded by a meeting hosted by Save Our Schools New Jersey (SOS NJ), a grassroots, nonpartisan organization started in early 2010 in response to the state budget cuts.
”As its endgame, SOS NJ is very, very dedicated to keeping local control, to allowing communities and local boards of education and faculties and administrators to make collective decisions about what is best in each community in New Jersey,” Ms Wilson said. “It’s very much about stretching our dollars to get to the instructional core at all times and it’s about reminding each of us that grassroots efforts matter tremendously.”
”In order to be effective as grassroots advocates, we need as much grassroots support as possible,” said Julia Sass Rubin, one of the organization’s founding members.
SOS NJ has taken on four key areas: vouchers, charters, the budget as a whole and the funding formula. The group opposes public funding for private religious school vouchers. It is not against charters but believes that the charter school law in New Jersey is broken in three ways: lack of local input; charters are not educating the population of their sending districts, including ESL and special needs children; and there is a need for more transparency for charter schools.
In terms of the budget as a whole, SOS NJ doesn’t want to see the kind of cuts like last year. Additionally, it has taken issue with the school funding formula, which has seen a realignment of funding, and money that was promised was not funded, Ms. Rubin said.

