By Amber Cox
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP The Bordentown Regional Board of Education is facing a $2 million budget shortfall and looking for reductions or separate proposals to place on the ballot.
The board on Feb. 9 discussed posing courtesy busing as a separate ballot question which would help eliminate $633,000 from the budget.
Ballot questions would be voted up or down separately from the main budget.
Board member Joann Dansbury said any separate proposal the board thinks about putting on the ballot concerns her.
”If you put this as a separate question we don’t even have a viable chance,” she said. “If the budget goes down and the courtesy busing isn’t in a question, you could still do subscription busing and you wouldn’t have to charge the whole amount.
”I think we have to think about this as a board about what we are saying. What are we going to do with this? It would be simple to put it on a question and say ‘OK it’s up to these guys, if it doesn’t pass, I did what I could,’ but that’s not what we’re in the business of. We’re in the business of kids.”
Currently, busing costs $889 for just one child but the board believes they could charge the district a subscription fee for busing. The board said they would not charge the whole $889 if they decided to do this.
”If it is defeated, the question cannot be restored by the board or the municipality because the voters have spoken,” Superintendent Constance Bauer said. “If a question is voted for with a ‘yes,’ the money for that question can’t be defeated.”
Most board members said they were concerned with putting courtesy busing as a separate proposal and as of that meeting it was taken off the table.
The board also discussed possible reductions in personnel, including administration and supervision, office personnel, cutting full-time aides to part-time and reducing certificated staff.
”That would cut just over $1 million allowing for the budget to, hopefully, be OK with the 2 percent cap and flat state aid,” Ms. Bauer said. “If state aid is cut more, reductions will have to be made.”
Cutting the full-day kindergarten program to half-day was also discussed and would essentially cut $210,000 from the budget. The full-day program was implemented less than 10 years ago.
Ms. Bauer explained that the board can continue to make adjustments up to the public hearing.
”We’re not married to any of the second proposal options at this time,” she said. “We won’t know until the end of the month what our final budget situation will be.”
State aid numbers are expected to reach the districts at the end of the month and the budgets are due to the county office on March 4.
”Like last year, it’s a very quick turnaround from the time we get the state aid numbers to the time that we actually have to get the budget to the county office,” Ms. Bauer said.
The board planned to meet Feb. 16 to further discuss the budget and separate proposal options.
