A n increase in state aid for the 2011-12 school year will allow for some restoration and relief after a year of drastic cuts to programs and personnel in the state’s fifth-largest school district.
The Edison Township school system will receive nearly $9.7 million in state aid, a $1.95 million increase from last year’s $7.7 million, according to figures released last week by Gov. Chris Christie.
“We were very pleased with the notification of additional state aid,” Superintendent of Schools Richard O’Malley said. “We built a very strong budget prior to the governor’s budget address, with the notion that state aid would remain at last year’s level.”
The Board of Education was to introduce its 2011-12 budget, which totals $205 million, during its Feb. 28 meeting.
The increase in state aid will allow the board to accomplish the district’s “two very critical goals” — restoring programs that were previously cut and providing tax relief for residents, O’Malley said in a Feb. 24 email. The superintendent did not reveal which programs would be restored; however, officials have been reviewing the cuts that went into effect this school year, including full-day kindergarten, middle school sports, music programs, after-school busing and co-curricular activities.
The situation is in sharp contrast to a year ago, when school officials learned that they would have to absorb a $9.7 million reduction in state aid for the current school year. When voters defeated the board’s budget at the polls, the Township Council ordered an additional cut of $6.5 million. In July, some 343 positions were eliminated. Full-day kindergarten became a half-day program. The board at the time also approved the privatization of the district’s 137 paraprofessional and teacher’s aide positions; however, in August, just before the start of the school year, the Edison Township Education Association voted in favor of ratifying a sidebar agreement that the ETEA leadership and Board of Education had reached. The agreement restored the jobs of 123 paraprofessionals and 10 teacher aides, all of whom work with disabled students, as well as the positions of 13 teachers, seven library aides and four guidance counselors.
The school board will hold a hearing on the 2011-12 school budget at 7 p.m. March 28 at J.P. Stevens High School.