Westfield Schools Finalize Date For Public Vote On District Budget

WESTFIELD, NJ — Westfield Public Schools finalized the date for the public vote on the district's 2023-2024 budget at the Board of Education meeting on Dec. 13.

The date of the election, at which Westfield residents will be asked to vote on the school district budget and on school board candidates, has been changed from April 18 to April 25.

Back in June, the board unanimously voted to approve this shift in election timing — from November to April — to allow the public to have a say in the budget.

Read more: Westfield BOE Moves Election To April, Allowing Public Vote On Budget

The approval of the most recent 2022-2023 school budget came with a lot of controversy, as the board decided to cut several teachers and staff members — many from the arts department — due to a $2.3 million budget shortcoming.

This shortcoming was partly due to the state's 2 percent tax levy cap. Under state law, the district is only allowed to increase the levy by a maximum of 2 percent.

Read more: Westfield Schools Layoff Arts Educators Amidst Budget Cuts

By having the public vote on the budget, the district could potentially raise the state's two percent property tax levy cap.

According to Business Administrator Dana Sullivan there will be two questions regarding the 2023-2024 budget on the April 25 ballot.

• The first question will be regarding the base school district budget at a 2 percent cap plus any eligible waivers.
• The second question will contain any non-mandated costs necessary to maintain existing staff and programs.

If the first question is not approved, the base budget goes to the Town Council who can make line-item changes if they wish, in consultation with the Board of Education.

In addition, if the second question is not approved by the voters, those budgetary items related to staffing, programs, and other non-mandated costs would be dropped and could not be retrieved for this budget.

Superintendent Raymond González said that the district will continue to keep the community updated in the months ahead and noted that this approach to move beyond the two percent cap is "the only way to maintain the district’s staff and programs and to expand them moving forward."

You can view the full Board of Education meeting on YouTube.

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