Taxes Could Jump $203 in Ridgewood School Spending Plan

The Ridgewood school board declined to pursue what one trustee called "sequestration"-style cuts that would have axed freshman sports and done away with 16 full-time positions, among others. Instead, the board passed a preliminary budget that would increase taxes by 2 percent.

The proposed $91,287,513 school budget for 2013-2014 represents a tax increase of $203.60 for the average resident with a home valued at $687,364. It contains no cuts to programming or full-time personnel, though fewer teacher's aides are proposed. Business administrator Angelo DeSimone said $905,000 in cuts were found to get to a 2 percent tax increase.

Ridgewood board members unanimously approved the preliminary budget, which is subject to change before taxpayers weigh in for the March 27 public hearing. The budget vote takes place Tuesday, April 16.

But don't be mistaken – the unanimous vote on the preliminary budget doesn't tell the whole story.

Superintendent Dan Fishbein made a presentation detailing what it would take to arrive at a 0 percent tax increase. And the scenario was grim.

To find $1.65 million in cuts, Fishbein said he'd:

• eliminate freshman sports and other co-curriculars ($158K);
• layoff 8 secretaries district-wide ($460K);
• layoff 5 elementary school teachers ($325,000), which would increase class sizes to 25 pupils;
• cut two high school teachers ($100K);
• cut one administrator ($165K);
• eliminate a middle school language arts training program ($140K);
• eliminate 20 percent of maintenance projects ($100K);
• spend $180K on outsourcing to back fill positions

"If there was a way to become more efficient with a magic bullet, we would be using it already and other districts across the state and country would be using it," Fishbein said.

Trustee Jim Morgan, who's pressed colleagues and administrators to provide options other than a 2 percent budgeted tax increase, found Fishbein's proposal similar to recent federal standoffs.

"I look upon these cuts ... much like Obama's sequestration cuts," Morgan said. "These are high-profile cuts that are easy to say, 'that's a bad idea.'"

Had the board fulfilled its stated goal of examining budget scenarios at varying tax rates in October, the proposed cuts would likely look different, according to Morgan. He, along with trustee Christina Krauss, prefers the board set a goal of starting with a 0 percent tax increase and work up as necessary. In his view, the board failed to challenge administrators to dig deep and find alternative solutions.

Fishbein disagreed with Morgan's claim.

"These would be the types of cuts you would see," the superintendent replied.

Apart from draining its fund balance, teaching positions and programming were sliced to make up millions in cuts during 2010 and 2011.

Morgan ultimately found little support amongst his colleagues and the administrators, who argued the numbers weren't available to create realistic budget scenarios in the fall or even January.

"Setting a board goal at a number does not change the efforts we've made to contain costs," offered Michele Lenhard, pointing to "cutting edge" cost efficiencies. "So the goal of the board to set a tax increase at zero and to justify going above it, I think that has been achieved. And this is showing what additional work would have to be done to meet that objective."

Further challenging the current budget, according to board president Sheila Brogan, special education costs are skyrocketing (up $1 million this year).

The education landscape is changing, she said.

"Ultimately our obligation to every one of our students is to provide a high quality education. When I look at this budget, I look at what our administrators have said, I believe this is their best judgment on how we can continue to provide a high quality education program in this district."

According to one board member, while taxes are likely to rise for the average resident, the true cost of cuts is a much graver implication.

"The last thing we need to do is to cost cut ourselves into becoming a second-rate school system," board vice president Vince Loncto said.