BOE Approves $92.2 Million Budget Request With No Cuts

The Board of Education took the first steps to finalizing the proposed school district budget Thursday evening by approving a preliminary budget document that does not call for any program cuts.

The BOE approved a maximum budget total of $92,220,416 in order to meet a state deadline to provide such a figure to the acting executive county schools superintendent by the close of business on Friday. The amount approved by the BOE is not the final budget figure and could be decreased by the time a final budget document is approved by the BOE on March 29.

The document calls for the raising of $83,359,305 through property taxes, which school business officials represents a two-percent increase in the tax rate. This year’s budget is the first to be adopted under the new state imposed two-percent property tax cap.

Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan said that the budget is the first recent years to not include cuts in programs in the school system. Dolan, and board members, used part of the meeting to celebrate the board’s austerity practices in recent years, along with programs to create new revenue sources.

“The board took steps without knowing if the state would support the public schools,” Dolan said.

The budget number includes the nearly 200-percent increase in state aid. Last week, acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf announced that Westfield would received $1.845 million in state aid, up from slightly over $400,000 in 2010. The 2010 figure marked a $4.22 million cut in state aid imposed in Gov. Chris Christie’s first budget. Christie increased school aid statewide in his 2011 budget.

Dolan and board members pointed to prior cuts taken in the school system, including cuts in the amount of administrators district wide. Dolan also outlined past steps including the implementation of a new energy system, the student activity fee, increased health insurance contributions from teachers and the restructuring of the district’s debt obligations.

In her overview of the preliminary budget figures, Dolan explained that the district has saved $2,257,300 in operational costs through restructuring the district’s health insurance plan, changing the district’s communications system, changes in transportation funding, the energy program and changing the purchase of large items such as copiers.

Dolan also announced that the district is expecting $1,079,465 in new revenue sources to replace the state aid cut by Christie last year. She said this is coming from the employee health insurance contributions, the student activity fee and new grants.

Dolan said she will be unveiling details of the spending plan during board meetings in the month of March. The board’s finance committee is working with Dolan and her executive team to finalize the budget document. The board’s three scheduled March meetings are expected to devoted to line item reviews of the budget.

Following the board’s March 29 adoption of a spending plan, the document will face a public referendum during the April 27 school election. The referendum question will specifically ask voters to approve the raising of $83 million in property tax dollars. If the budget vote fails, Mayor Andy Skibitsky and the Town Council will be empowered to make cuts to the overall amount to be raised via taxes. The BOE would then make budget cuts based on what was ordered by Skibitsky and the Council.

Thursday’s budget vote also included the adoption of a resolution asking for a state waiver for the increased costs of health benefits in the amount of $352,118. This was included to bring the amount into the maximum budget amount. School district officials this will allow for several goals to be met in the final budget.

“We need to find a way to put money in for capital improvements,” BOE Business Administrator Bob Berman said.

In December, the school district’s auditors informed the BOE that the district’s capital reserve fund of $896 was periliously low. Dolan and Berman said the acting county superintendent has also informed them that the school district needs to deposit more in the capital account.

Residents in attendance told the BOE of different areas to focus on in finalizing the budget. David Rogers proposed putting more funds into the library system, noting the need for students to learn how to utilize information. During the 2010 budget cuts following Christie’s state aid cut, the district implemented a ban on buying new library books and cut back the number of elementary and intermediate school librarians, forcing a traveling librarian system in the district.

BOE members greeted the preliminary budget data with enthusiasm at the need to avoid new cuts.

“While other districts are still struggling, we spent so much of the last year cutting and responding to the $4.22 million taken from us and loosing at efficiencies and grants,” BOE member Ginny Leiz. “That the district has spent the time doing that, we don’t feel compelled to bleed at the table.”