BOE Plans Four Percent Budget Hike

Westfield Public Schools began the budget process by presenting a preliminary plan to increase its 2010-2011 budget by just under 4-percent, taking advantage of recently-won concessions on health insurance from teachers and staff.

District officials are also counting on the same amount of financial assistance as the current school year, though Gov. Chris Christie has let districts know they should brace for the possibility of big cuts. The district receives roughly $5 million in state aid each year.

Christie will detail his plan for school aid duing his budget address on Tuesday, but the board had to begin discussing a budget because it needs to be approved before being voted on by the community on April 20.

"Before we have all the information from the state, we had to move forward with what we do know," Robert Berman, the district's business administrator, said to the Board of Education on Tuesday.

The board's finance committee is continuing to meet to discuss the budget and changes are likely to be made before a final budget is passed and presented to voters in the April 20 school election.

Detailed state aid numbers are expected from the state Department of Education on Tuesday. State Education Commissioner Bret Schundler warned suburban school districts, including Westfield, last week that it is likely Christie will be making cuts. Gubernatorial chief of staff Rich Bagger, in an interview with Westfield Patch, declined to reveal the amount of state aid cuts, only confirming that the issue, along with others facing the state budget are being considered by Christie.

In the proposed $87.65 million budget, every segment of the district's appropriations rose except operating costs.

Some of the increases to the facilities portion of the budget would fund an upgrade of the district's Internet to make it faster, Berman said.

The district also proposed redirecting funds currently used on leases of technological equipment to replace all 167 of the district's library computers and replace 260 computers that are five years old, he said. The district is also looking to upgrade the district's high speed internet connections through renegotiated contracts with Verizon.

One reason the budget is so tight is that the state has canceled the distribution of end-of-the-year payments to districts. Westfield is and has had to freeze spending on all purchases for the year, Superintendent Margaret Dolan said. 

"This budget does not include every request that's been submitted," Dolan said. "We've been saying 'no' for months."

Christie made the cut to the remaining state aid as part of his plan to plug a hole in the current state budget. As part of the plan, the governor cut $475 million in remaining state school aid payments statewide, basing the district figures on surplus.

Some of the staff requests made that could not be fit in the budget were for a psychologist, two part-time custodians, a computer technician and a speech language therapist. 

Also, the district will continue to postpone replacing boilers at Jefferson School and Franklin School, repairing the roof at Tamaques School and repairing a gym roof at Westfield High School.

Because the state has made it more difficult for district's to set aside money for big facilities expenses, the board should consider a new bond referendum for some specific capital projects, said board member Richard Solomon.