Plunging economy a test for schools
Already-pared budgets are going before voters
Sunday, April 19, 2009
BY KRISTEN ALLOWAY
Star-Ledger Staff

The Bloomfield school district is considering replacing 71 full-time teachers aides with 142 part-timers to save $800,000 on health benefits.

Mount Olive is axing 10 administrative posts, five aides, an art teacher and its Chinese language program.
South Brunswick is eliminating 25 central office jobs and offers a budget with no tax increase -- the first time it has done that in more than a decade.

But none of this may be enough.

Voters go to the polls Tuesday in 548 districts to approve school budgets and choose board members. And with the national recession hitting home, this election will test New Jerseyans' love of their schools as much as any in memory.

Districts say it's not as if they're not trying. They are shaving spending, and only 11 will ask voters special permission to raise spending for new positions or projects, down from 70 to 100 "second ballot questions" sought in past years.

"We're seeing a lot of budgets with staff cuts -- non-instructional positions, teachers aides. In some places, teaching staff is being cut," said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. "These are not growth budgets that are going to be on the ballot."

Voters will decide if districts are getting close enough to the bone. And even if they reject a budget, their local governing bodies could overrule them.

In the past, voters have been a friendly bunch. Last year, as the financial downturn started to take hold, voters still approved 73.5 percent of the spending plans, slightly better than average for the decade.

"We'd like to believe voters would recognize that our proposed zero increase on expenses and 1.5 percent on the tax levy is very reasonable given the current economic climate, and (that they) would support the budget," said Ray Krov, business administrator for Hunterdon Central Regional High School.

The cuts don't come without costs.

Michele Lehman, 53, a preschool aide for children with autism in Bloomfield, said she will re-apply for one of the part-time jobs if the cuts are maintained. But she thinks many of her colleagues will have to seek full-time jobs elsewhere, and she's concerned about what that means for the students.

"We take data. We teach. We implement behavior programs. We meet with the behaviorist (to be) trained to take care of specific behaviors," Lehman said. "I don't think part-time people will be trained as we were. ... It's about the quality of the education these kids will get."

A second round of federal stimulus money amounting to $609 million and announced by Gov. Jon Corzine Thursday may provide a bit of relief. Bloomfield superintendent Frank Digesere said he is hopeful some of that money may help him save the full-time jobs of his aides, but he still needs to negotiate that with the state and his school board.

He said he had taken the step of eliminating the positions reluctantly, because while children would still be served, employees would lose full-time pay and benefits. "That's not what I wanted to do," he said, "but I didn't have a choice."

The stimulus money has been key to staving off massive cuts and layoffs in New Jersey. Last month, the state used an earlier pot of about $1 billion in stimulus spending to shore up state aid to education.

But although districts received at least as much aid as last year, officials said they still faced difficult choices with rising fixed costs, things like increases in teacher salaries and benefits negotiated before the recession.

Even with the spending cuts Bloomfield planned to implement -- including delayed capital improvements and some custodial positions lost through attrition -- the $85 million budget still will mean an average $174 tax hike for Bloomfield residents with a home assessed at $140,000, Digesere said.

Jerry Cantrell, president of the New Jersey Taxpayers Association, said he is encouraged to see districts budgeting tighter but feels they should do that every year, not just in a time of fiscal crisis.

"In a year as we're experiencing now, it behooves local board members to hold the line. They should be seriously looking at no increase in taxes," Cantrell said.

South Brunswick was able to accomplish that but it meant trimming 25 jobs after the executive Middlesex County superintendent -- a state appointee -- told the district it needed to slash administrative costs and make other cuts, according to superintendent Gary McCartney. The district had already cut 41 positions in the last several years, he said.

This is the first year county superintendents are taking more of a public spending "watch-dog" role, said state Department of Education spokesman Richard Vespucci. The change comes after new regulations were created last year to govern school spending, including a requirement that budgets rise by no more than 4 percent.

"If it's not directly related to teaching a subject, you've got to explain why you're doing it," Vespucci said.

In South Brunswick, 13 of those 25 jobs being eliminated will come through attrition. They include assistant principals at elementary, middle and high schools, a public information officer, aides and custodians.

Should the budget fail, McCartney said, the district might consider "pay to play" fees for extracurricular activities.

Hunterdon Central Regional High School's board managed to keep its tax hike at 1.5 percent by eliminating six positions, hopefully through attrition; delaying the purchase of a school bus and some other equipment; and reducing money spent on printing, according to Krov. Six top-level administrators also volunteered to freeze their salaries for next year.


Staff writer Jeanette Rundquist contributed to this report. Kristen Alloway may be reached at kalloway@starledger.com.