FRHSD tab
now facing
state review
The Freehold Regional High School District’s defeated 2003-04 budget will be reviewed by the Monmouth County superintendent of schools and the state Department of Education.
Municipal officials in the eight towns that make up the FRHSD failed to reach a consensus on the amount to be cut from the budget, which was defeated in the April 15 election. That decision will now be left to state education officials.
The municipal governing bodies in Englishtown, Manalapan, Farmingdale, Freehold Township, Freehold Borough and Marlboro each passed a resolution authorizing a cut of $937,000 to be made in the district’s budget for the coming school year. That action followed meetings between representatives of the constituent communities and FRHSD administrators.
The budget proposed by the FRHSD Board of Education totaled $135 million and called for a tax levy of $89.6 million. The resolutions passed in those five communities call for a total budget of $134.1 million and a tax levy of $88.6 million.
On May 14, the Colts Neck Township Committee voted 4-1 on a resolution calling for $1.53 million to be cut from the FRHSD budget.
On May 19, the Howell Township Council voted 3-1 to recommend a cut of $1.5 million from the FRHSD budget. Mayor Timothy Konopka and council members Joseph DiBella and Juan Malave voted in favor of that amount. Councilman Peter Tobasco voted against the resolution. Councilwoman Cynthia Schomaker was absent.
A consensus among all eight towns on what to cut would have kept the budget from being reviewed by the county superintendent, who is the local representative of the state Department of Education.
The review process by the state will now last until late June. When a final decision is made on how much to reduce the 2003-04 budget, the tax levy will be certified and FRHSD officials will be able to determine the increase on the high school tax rate in each of the eight sending communities."I am extremely disappointed with the inability of the mayors to reach a consensus on budget cuts," said Superintendent of Schools James Wasser. "Because of a failure to agree, the FRHSD budget will now go [eventually] to Trenton where someone with no knowledge of our school system will determine which programs and services to cut."
Wasser said the responsibility to determine what to cut belongs to the district and the municipalities at the local level.
"It is a local matter, affecting local students and residents, and should have been successfully negotiated by the district and our eight local towns," he said.
FRHSD public information coordinator Ilse Whisner outlined the steps that will now be followed.
"The county superintendent (who represents the state Department of Education on the local level) must review the district budget," Whisner said. "By June 2, he must complete an analysis and submit a recommendation to the regional assistant commissioner."
Another important date on the calendar is June 11, the date set when representatives of the Office of Fiscal Policy and Planning and the regional fiscal staff will meet to discuss the county superintendent’s recommended budget reductions.
There will be a panel review before the final review and approval will be held on June 20, and a final decision by the state education commissioner is scheduled to be issued no later than June 25, Whisner said.
Concerned about the impact of any further cuts that will be made in Trenton, Wasser said, "Anything beyond the $937,000 agreed to by six of the eight towns will negatively impact on staff and student academic and extracurricular programs. We can’t afford to lose staff when our enrollments keep growing and I certainly don’t want to see summer school or freshman sports affected.
"If we don’t get this done and do it at our level, which is our responsibility, [the] schools, with the Board of Education, with the mayors, then shame on us because it goes to the commissioner and somebody that does not know our school district is going to make a determination on the cuts and it’s non-appealable. Then I don’t want to hear the issues about who [is] to blame. The blame is that we did not solve the problem in our own home. We should have solved it in our own family. Instead, we let it be solved by somebody else," Wasser said.