By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
The East Windsor Regional School District cut $100,000 in substitute teacher stipends to spare a teaching position and an occupational therapy specialist, according to Superintendent Ed Forsthoffer’s explanation of the revised $75.4 million budget that will go before voters next month.
Dr. Forsthoffer said the $100,000 was actually a savings that wasn’t realized in the budget earlier this month. Last year, the district stopped calling in substitutes for many non-certified positions, and also created a “puddle” the high school’s study hall for students in place of some classes thereby creating the savings.
The new budget, which was approved unanimously by the school board at its March 24 meeting, still calls for 10 positions to be slashed. Those include:
Five teachers, including two elementary school teachers, two Hightstown High School teachers and a Kreps Middle School physical education teacher.
Kreps’ athletic director, which is included in the $30,000 in stipends being stripped from the schools.
Two classroom assistants, a clerical position and a child study team member.
”It’s never not painful, but we do the best that we can,” School Board President Alice Weisman said on March 24 before voting in favor of the new budget.
The staffing and stipend cuts were made to close the remaining $690,000 deficit in the budget, Dr. Forsthoffer told the school board. This came after an unexpected windfall of $780,721 in state aid, which was 20 percent of the aid the state withheld in the previous school year.
The budget calls for a 2-percent tax increase, which was altered by the state’s re-assessment of East Windsor’s and Hightstown’s portion of the tax liability they had to the district. Hightstown’s residents, after the tax hike, will actually see their property taxes from the school district go down 0.6 cents per $100 of property value, for a tax savings of about $15 for the average home in Hightstown. East Windsor residents, on the other hand, will have to fork over an extra 2.07 cents per $100 of property value to the schools, or about $54.90 for the average East Windsor homeowner.
Dr. Forsthoffer tried opening up the contracts among the unionized teachers and support staff, who are locked into 4-percent and 4.5-percent raises through the 2011-2012 school year. The two unions both declined to renegotiate the contracts. East Windsor Education Association President Ellen Ogintz told the school board early last month that the teachers faced what amounted to a 16-percent pay cut due to state-mandated contributions to their own pension and health care costs.
Before the state aid was announced, Dr. Forsthoffer projected anywhere from 35 to 95 school district employees would lose their jobs.

