Councils hire auditor to help trim school budget
School board says
no specific programs
earmarked for cuts yet
The Matawan Borough Council and Aberdeen Township Council hired an independent auditor last week to help them trim down the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional school district budget.
According to municipal officials, the firm of Hutchins, Farrell, Meyer and Allison, Freehold, will make recommendations to the councils on what should be cut from the school budget.
Schools Superintendent Michael Klavon said at last week’s Board of Education meeting that many cuts were already made to the budget before it was presented to the voters.
Klavon said that with the budget already pared down by his office during the process of developing the budget, he feared the effect of cuts recommended by the municipalities on student programs and staffing.
"The budget impacts people. Everything we do impacts the students directly or indirectly," said the superintendent.
Klavon has also said that the district has not ruled out appealing any tax levy reduction if officials feel the cut will have a significant effect on student programs in the district.
Board President Gerald Donaghue also addressed the budget, at last week’s board meeting, telling the crowd that any speculation that certain programs were already on the chopping block were not reliable.
"There are rumors that this is going or that is going," said Donaghue. "Decisions are going to be made, and we are going to make them.
"We will try to make the best decision we can," he added.
Although some district programs may be at risk since the budget failed, Donaghue said that voters did not have an easy choice this year.
"People who supported the budget, I thank you, and to those of you who didn’t, I understand," said Donaghue.
The $46.7 million school budget was soundly defeated at the polls by voters in both municipalities April 16, with a total vote of 1,627 against the budget, to 841 in favor of the budget.
The budget that went before voters included significant tax hikes for both towns, with taxes in Aberdeen slated to go up 23.7 cents per $100 of assessed property, while residents in Matawan would have seen an increase of 16.6 cents per $100 of assessed property.
Any cuts to the school budget must be decided upon by the two councils and submitted to the state by the deadline of May 20.
The two bodies have the option of cutting the total tax levy or leaving it alone. They must back up any reduction with recommended areas to cut.
At that point, the school district has the option of appealing the tax-levy cut to the state commissioner of education in order to have that money restored to the budget if it is deemed necessary by state officials.