Twp. Committee: Cut School Budget by $478K

Property taxes will rise by almost $81 less than initially proposed and no additional teachers will lose their jobs should the Board of Education accept the Township Committee's recommended line-item budget cuts.

The governing body voted this morning to propose $478,135 in cuts from the defeated $31,808,113 tax levy, which had been on the ballot in support of a $33.3 million spending plan for 2010-11. Should the school board accept a $31,329,978 tax levy, the average tax bill (based on a $807,000 assessment) would rise by $209.30, as opposed to the $290 that the defeated budget would have levied.

The cuts "seem very drastic," school board President Anthony Robert Francin said today. "The board was not at all expecting such a large cut by the Township Committee."

The recommendations would not necessarily avert teacher dismissals planned after the school board lost its state aid package while making cuts to areas that won't affect programs. If followed, the recommendations also would restore the track and field program, which was cut alongside all interscholastic sports.

"We wouldn't cut anything that would hurt kids' educational programs," said Committeeman David Connolly, the governing body's Finance Committee chairman, who led the township's review of the budget.

"The board strongly feels that there really is no fat in this budget at all," said Francin, who added the board will "take everything under consideration."

With the vote, the Township Committee completed its review in advance of a Wednesday deadline for budget recommendations, as statutorily required when a budget is defeated at the polls. The school board is obligated to accept the $478,135 in cuts, although it does not necessarily have to follow the Township Committee's line-item recommendations.

The recommended cuts include:

• $80,000 for substitute teachers;
• $100,000 dedicated to paving school parking lots, with $160,451 budgeted for the purpose instead of $260,451;
• $100,000 for painting projects, with $659,457 budgeted for a variety of maintenance projects instead of $759,457;
• $5,000 for attendance at the annual school board conference in Atlantic City.
• $39,635 for a program to provide additional language arts training to teachers, which will also save on substitute costs, as teachers will be in the classroom more than otherwise.

The committee also identified savings and/or new revenue in other areas that enabled it to recommend further reductions in the tax levy:

• $100,000 in savings on new teacher hires, as educators retiring at the upper end of the pay scale will be replaced by younger teachers who command much less in salary;
• $21,000 in salary increases for administrators, who have been approached about possibly reducing their pay bump by 1.5 percent; they've already agreed to allocate 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health costs;
• $37,500 in new revenue anticipated next year, which creates the opportunity for a corresponding $37,500 decrease in the tax levy;
• $5,000 is proposed to be spent to restore the track program at Eisenhower Middle School. Connolly and Committeman Brian Scanlan had pushed for the program, which does not have an equivalent within the Wyckoff Recreation Department's offerings, as other sports do.

Connolly said the cuts proposed for language arts training came after "listening to a lot of comments from parents" concerned about the amount of time teachers spend outside the classroom.

"Those programs will just have to happen at different hours," said Connolly, who said such programs represent a "double cost" due to money spent on substitutes.

"You just can't do this stuff anymore," he said. 

Committeeman Chris DePhillips said the cuts to the substitute budget would still provide "more than enough" to cover absences.

"The majority is supposed to be for illness and maternity leave, but they are using it for reasons other than that," such as absences for workshops and training, he said.

"It's gotten out of hand."

Francin said the board will have to "clamp down on teachers being out of the classroom" but was concerned about cuts to the substitute budget.

"All you need is one or two teachers on a disability to blow a hole in that budget," he said.

The school board had already sharply reduced capital expenditures to craft the 2010-11 plan, but the committee's review of the budget located hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance accounts dedicated to painting and paving and other projects. DePhillips has said some of the expenditure could be sacrificed without affecting programming. Additionally, public speakers who attended a joint school board/committee review of the budget had proposed volunteering their time to complete painting projects.

Francin "definitely sees where they're coming from" on the painting and paving projects, although the "cuts they made are ones we put off today to pay tomorrow."

The Board of Education also had planned to cut 10 staffers (two world language teachers; two Eisenhower Middle School teachers; four clerical aides; a part-time ESL teacher; and a part-time nurse at Eisenhower) which would increase class sizes while virtually eliminating world language instruction at the middle school. The Township Committee's recommendations do not address the issue, although no additional staffers are identified to be cut.

"The Township Committee, throughout the review process, refused to recommend terminating teachers which would have the detrimental effect of increasing class size. The Township Committee also refused to recommend cuts in art, music, math, special education, science or any academic program," reads a news release provided by the township.

Connolly was "really pleased that the committee took my recommendation on track," which also was strongly supported by Scanlan. The $5,000 proposed for the program would still save the district approximately $25,000 in expenses for interscholastic sports, including soccer, basketball, softball and baseball, which the recreation department provides.

"I want to see the kids exercise and have fun," Connolly said.

The school board president was "happy the committee realized the importance of the track program" but wishes it had recommended restoring the other sports.

DePhillips said the $37,500 in "new revenue" is a recommendation to the board to cut its anticipated surplus by that amount rather than raising the tax levy by $37,500.

The proposed cuts do not include any savings from the teachers within the Wyckoff Education Association, who have rejected calls for a 2.9 percent salary increase next year as opposed to their contractually negotiated 4.4 percent increase. The line item for teacher salaries represented more than 60 percent of the initial budget, while the Township Committee estimates the 4.4 percent bump costing the district $720,000 next year. A 2.9 percent increase would save the school district $240,000 next year.

"The bottom line is if they had agreed to the 1.5 percent some of our recommeded cuts would be unnecessary," DePhillips said.

Connolly said the WEA "can still be heroes" by agreeing to the wage increase proposal, but association President Kathy Bowers has said on several occasions that such a giveback would cause undue hardship on the membership and is not a proposal the teachers would consider.

Were the association to have a change of heart, the estimated $240,000 would not be added to the $478,135 recommendation. Rather, it would allow the school board to avert some of the cuts the committee is suggesting.

Francin has said that the board would likely schedule a special meeting soon to review the Township Committee's recommendations. The board's Finance Committee will meet tonight to discuss the recommendations.

Connolly characterized the review process, attended by board members and administrators, as "good, open, honest discussions" with "no animosity, no angst.

"There's definitely a better atmosphere between the school board and us," he said.

The board could theoretically appeal the recommended tax levy reduction to the state Department of Education, but Francin said he doesn't "see the board appealing the cuts."

The school board has not yet discussed areas to cut, should it disagree with the Township Committee's recommendations. "Our job was to advocate and lobby for our budget," during the review process.

With the recommendation in, "we will take a look at it as it is now" and "if it makes sense, we'll do what the Township Committee recommends."