School districts react to state aid figures

Additional state aid forestalls plans for cutbacks, layoffs in some districts

BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer

While many school districts anxiously anticipated a significant reduction in state aid this year, many were cautiously optimistic when Gov. Chris Christie announced that districts would receive an increase of $250 million statewide on Feb. 22.

Districts in northern Monmouth County generally received more education funds than last year, according to figures released by the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) on Feb. 24, two days after the state budget address in Trenton.

The Holmdel Township Public School District is slated to receive $508,703 additional dollars in the new budget, totaling $905,006 for 2011-12, up from $396,303 in 2010-11.

“We are happy about it, but we are a little nervous whether it will come through,” said Board of Education Vice President Barbara Garrity in an interview on Feb. 25. “After last year, there is a little anxiety about whether it will be really real.”

As school officials prepare for Holmdel’s “State of the District” presentation on March 16, many cost-savings considerations, like a pay-to-participate policy for extracurricular and athletics, will most likely be off the table, according to Garrity.

At the same time, she said the district is continuing to search for shared service opportunities and other ways to save money in the long term, despite the short-term boost in state aid.

“Having been cut last year $2 million in state aid, plus they [cut] back about $87,000 by billing us back on debt service for school construction bonds from the past, and having taken $165,000 back out of our current budget last year … $500,000 [in state aid] back in our current budget last year, $500,000 does not restore all of that, but it is better than what we were afraid would happen,” Garrity said. “In that sense, we are happy, and it is good news, but we are digesting what exactly it will be in terms of the budget and in terms of the tax rate.”

The Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District (MARSD) will receive $584,216 more than last year, totaling $10,651,275, according to the DOE.

Last year, MARSD received total aid of $10,067,060, a reduction of $2.9 million in education funding, which the district responded to by cutting 80 positions, including 20 teachers and outsourcing its 36-member janitorial staff.

Going forward, Interim MARSD Superintendent Patrick Piegari said the additional state aid would help to avoid the reduction of programs, personnel and services, as well as provide taxpayer relief.

“Our goal is twofold: not to reduce and cut programs and services, and also help the taxpayers with their tax relief,” Piegari said. “We want to avoid any additional cuts to the instructional programs that will impact the students.” Piegari said the district is making a concerted effort “to carefully look at and be sensitive to” any tax impact on the borough and the township.

The Matawan-Aberdeen Board of Education discussed the new state aid figures Monday, and the district expected to welcome its new superintendent, David Healy, on March 1.

Based on the new figures, the district is exploring shared service opportunities in order to operate under the state-mandated 2 percent cap on annual tax increases.

“We are going to be looking at longterm cost savings measures through either contracted services or through shared services, as well as operating programs within the district instead of contracting it out, that we can do more efficiently financially and more conservatively,” he said. “That is in discussion now.”

The district’s budget hearing is scheduled for March 28 at 7 p.m. at Cambridge Park School, 1 Crest Way, Aberdeen.

In the Middletown Public School District, the school system will receive an additional $1,446,977 this year after being cut by approximately $7.2 million in 2010-11.

Under the district’s $140 million spending plan in 2010-11, the district reduced approximately 100 school positions, including teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals. All non-bargaining staff members also agreed to freeze their salaries for the coming year.

With 17 schools and more than 9,000 students, the Middletown Public School system is the second largest in the county next to the Freehold Regional High School District. The 2011-12 total aid for Middletown is now $15,187,212, up from $13,741,235.

In Hazlet, the district will receive an additional $466,231 this year, totaling $11,592,016, up from $11.1 million last year. In 2009-10, the Hazlet Board of Education passed a budget that was $95,700 less than the 2008-09 budget, but still involved an approximately $2 million state aid cut, which called for 11 positions to be eliminated, including four teaching positions, two educational service positions, 1.5 custodial positions and two secretarial positions.

In Keyport, the district received an additional $173,850 this year, after being cut by $861,857 in 2010-11. The budget called for reductions of three full-time staff positions and two support positions, including secretaries and custodial staff. In 2011-12, the district’s total aid is $5,025,935, according to the DOE.