Six teachers would lose jobs
By Doug Carmen, Staff Writer
Six East Windsor Regional School District elementary school teachers would lose their jobs under a tentative budget Superintendent Ed Forsthoffer presented to the school board Monday evening.
Dr. Forsthoffer also called for a 2-percent property tax levy increase, the highest allowed by state law; the outsourcing of an occupational therapy specialist position; the slashing of two classroom assistant positions and a clerical position; and $30,000 in reduced stipends to fill a $791,000 budget gap. School board members said they had little choice as they unanimously approved the tentative $75.4 million budget.
”We want to try to bring back as many of those programs as we can,” board Vice President Robert Laverty said. “To the extent that we have any source of revenue … there is not much more we can do to balance the budget.”
Dr. Forsthoffer told the board Monday that the district was in the process of looking at which teachers would be laid off, though he said they all would be at the elementary schools.
The tax levy increase, which will go before voters on Wednesday, April 27, when school elections are held, will not affect the entire district evenly. The state altered the rates by which East Windsor and Hightstown had to contribute to the school district’s budget, Dr. Forsthoffer said. The new rates will cause Hightstown’s tax bill from the school district to drop by 0.6 cents per $100 of assessed property value, a savings of nearly $15 for the owner of an average home in the borough. For East Windsor, however, that bill’s going up 2.07 cents per $100, or about $55 for the average township homeowner, assuming the proposed budget passes, according to Dr. Forsthoffer.
The school district had more than $3 million in state aid slashed, which amounted to 5 percent of its total budget, in the 2010-2011 school year. For the next fiscal year, Gov. Chris Christie announced he was restoring 20 percent of the aid that had been cut, which for East Windsor amounted to nearly $781,000.
Dr. Forsthoffer told the board he considered bridging the budget gap without making any layoffs, which theoretically could have been done with a 3.2-percent tax increase. Under the previous 4-percent tax levy cap, this would have been possible, he told the school board, but the state reduced the tax cap to 2 percent for the next fiscal year, so this option was not legally possible without waivers.
He said he also asked the teachers and support staff unions to reopen their contracts. The teachers’ contracts called for 4-percent salary increases for the next fiscal year, while the support staff had 4.5-percent increases, with both expiring after next year. However, he said he was told by the two unions that they were not re-negotiating.
East Windsor Education Association President Ellen Ogintz, who represents about 430 district teachers, read a statement at Monday’s board meeting blaming a state-mandated increase in teacher pension contributions for the union’s stance. She said that and the health care contributions they’ll have to make once their contracts expire at the end of the next fiscal year would amount to a 16-percent reduction in take-home pay.
”Our members will be bleeding money for the next eight years,” Ms. Ogintz told the school board. “Their salaries this year may well be the highest they will ever make. So again, it is unfortunate, but we cannot make any concessions this year.”
Robyn Floom, president of the East Windsor Support Staff Association, did not return an e-mail seeking comment.

