Skibitsky and Council Take Wait and See Approach on BOE Budget

Mayor Andy Skibitsky and members of the Town Council are taking a wait and see approach on the proposed Board of Education budget in the run up to Tuesday's election.

Under state law the Council is required to make cuts to the proposed school budget if the voters reject the budget in the election. Skibitsky and the Council said they want to learn more about the proposed BOE budget in the event the voters decide to send the budget to them.

"We will have to wait and see what happens tomorrow," Councilman Mark Ciarroca said. "Let the voters decide and based on what the voters tell us, if it passes great, if it doesn't we will go through the same process we went through five years ago."

Skibitsky confirmed that the same process used in 2005 when voters rejected the school budget will be used this year if voters vote the budget down. This will include the Council's finance committee, chaired by Ciarrocca, taking the lead and include meetings between the Council's finance panel and the BOE's finance panel. In 2005, both finance committees met along with Town Administrator Jim Gildea, then Mayor Greg McDermott and then Schools Superintendent William Foley to discuss school finance issues. The mayor confirmed that Gildea and Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan will likely be part of the conversations in the event the budget is voted down.

Dolan announced last week the event the budget is defeated, BOE Business Administrator Bob Berman will deliver a foot high stack of budget briefing papers to the Town Council within 48 hours. The Council will then have three weeks to make cuts to the budget. During the 2005 process, the meetings between the two finance panels help formulate a plan where the Council cut $725,000 from that year's school budget. Skibitsky said the Council will let the finance committee take the lead to formulating cuts to the school budget.

Ciarrocca said he would like to see a series of meetings held with the BOE to better educate his committee on the school budget. The Council finance committee consists of Ciarrocca and Councilmembers Dave Haas, Sam Della Fera and Joann Neylan. He said he would like to know the discussions held by the school board's finance committee in writing the budget, which includes a $4.22 million cut in state aid., along with information on the what cuts would mean to education quality.

"They are the ones that have lived with this budget," Ciarrocca said of the school board's finance committee.

Council and board representatives have been meeting regularly in recent years to discuss joint issues. Two weeks ago, Ciarrocca and Skibitsky met with BOE President Ginny Leiz and BOE Vice President Julia Walker to discuss shared services and finance issues. Both Gildea and Dolan attended the meeting as well.

Neylan said she is waiting to see how the voters react on this budget before she makes any decisions on cuts. She was not part of the finance committee when the 2005 BOE budget came before the Council. Neylan said she plans on studying the briefing material from the school district and would prefer to wait to make any comment on how she would handle the budget should it end up in her lap. She did outline her general philosophy on education spending.

"I don't want the programs to suffer," hse said. "I don't want the kids to be hurt by any cuts. I wish we all were in a better situation. I have faith we will do a good job."

Haas, the finance committee's vice chairman, agreed with Neylan and Ciarrocca that he wants to hear the details of the budget from the Board of Education. He said the percentage of the vote would likely play a role in the event that the budget was rejected by voters. He said a larger margin of defeat would likely be seen as a mandate from the residents to make larger cuts to the budget, while a narrower defeat would make the cuts smaller in scale.

Haas, the Council's sole Democrat, placed blame for the current BOE budget situation with Christie.

"They faced an incredibly hard task with the governor choosing to balance his state budget on the backs of property taxpayers," he said.

Della Fera, the finance committee's fourth member, took the same approach of wanting more information before making public comment on the school budget. He noted that he has been focused on the town budget.

Council members who are not on the finance committee are remaining similarly quiet on the school budget. Councilman Keith Loughlin said he equates the Council's role to that of an appeals court and he does not believe it is prudent to discuss the issues publicly before the BOE election.

"As a result I feel it would be inappropriate for me to give my thougths on it until after it happens," Loughlin said.