Friday, March 19, 2010
Superintendent says more time is needed to cut the budget in light of governor's cuts to state education aid.
SCHOOLS|2 hours ago
Editor's Note: The following is a press release issued by the Westifeld Public Schools including a letter sent by Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan to Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) and Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-Summit). The letter is regarding the cuts made this week by Gov. Chris Christie to state education aid, including the $4.22 million cut Westfield received. 90.4% CUT IN STATE AID A directive from Trenton on March 17 cut Westfield's state aid to schools by 90.4%. This completely contradicted what the Commissioner of Education had told Boards of Education and Superintendents less than a week before. New Jersey's Constitution provides for public education for all. …
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Westfield Board of Education
302 Elm St
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13023
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Committee met Thursday night to discuss budget gap.
The Board of Education finance committee held a long meeting Thursday night and is planning for another long night Monday as the group works to plug a $4.22 million budget hole created by Gov. Chris Christie's decision to cut Westfield's school aid by 90-percent. BOE Vice President Julia Walker, the finance panel's chairwoman, said the group has been working with a series of proposals submitted by teachers, administrators and residents. Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan has been meeting with administrators and union leaders all week to find budget reductions since Christie made the announcement in his budget speech on Tuesday. "There are lots of ideas on the table," Walker said. The BOE had planning for a potential $750,000 loss in …
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Westfield Board of Education
302 Elm St
/articles/boe-finance-panel-plans-monday-meeting-on-christie-aid-cuts
13023
/locations/319214
Parents urge lobbying of Kean, Bramnick and Munoz to reverse $4.22 million in state school aid cut.
Gov. Chris Christie's decision to slash Westfield's state education aid by $4.22 million, or 90-percent, has caused anger amongst some parent leaders in the community. During a budget briefing from Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan at Thursday's meeting of the Parent Teacher Council, parent leaders continued to express anger at Christie, state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler and legislative leaders for the cuts. During the briefing, Dolan said that one worst-case scenario that could close the current $3.5 million budget gap caused by Christie's actions would be to layoff between 50 and 60 BOE staffers. The $4.22 million equals five percent of the total BOE budget for the current fiscal year. Parents showed support for the …
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Westfield Board of Education
302 Elm St
/articles/parent-leaders-outraged-by-christie-education-cuts
13023
/locations/319215
Board of Education candidate discusses budget.
SCHOOLS|8 hours ago
To the Editor, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The grim reality of Governor Christie's slashing of our town's education budgetfor 2010-2011 is obviously upsetting news to all taxpayers and moreimportantly potentially to our childrens' future. But we are aresilient bunch—made up of world class educators, administrators, andresidents—that when pushed into a corner can come together to findsolutions to make the hard choices to defend a school system as great asWestfield's.Over the next two weeks the current Board of Education andSuperintendent Dolan have a very difficult (and unfair in many ways)task of dramatically altering a budget that they had already handed inafter months of impressive, yet hard labor. …
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Westfield Board of Education
302 Elm St
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13023
/locations/319220
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Christie cuts lead to e-mail exchanges.
Board of Education members from suburban districts in Union, Essex and Morris Counties have been having casual conversations regarding shared services in light of Gov. Chris Christie's cut to state education aid. Westfield Board of Education President Ginny Leiz announced at Thursday morning's Parent Teacher Council meeting that there has been discussion among members of the Tri County School Boards group regarding how various districts are planning to make budget cuts in the aftermath of Christie's larger than expected state aid cuts. School districts had expected a cut of no more than 15-percent in last year's state aid payment and Christie announced Tuesday that the cuts would equal five percent of the previous year's budget. In …
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Westfield Board of Education
302 Elm St
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13023
/locations/318343
BOE Veep discusses state education aid cuts.
OPINION|Yesterday
To the Editor, Governor Chris Christie gave his budget speech to the legislature on Tuesday. The Governor cut $4.2 million from the Westfield school budget. That is dramatically different than the news two weeks ago: Westfield should plan on a $750,000 cut. The Governor's cut amounts to a 92% reduction in state aid. There was no advance warning about the Governor's intention to cut 5% of the whole budget. To understand what that means, the school board would have to eliminate about 50 positions to save $4.2 million. The State of New Jersey has told Westfield that we must operate under their rules without their money. There are approximately 6250 students and 800 employees in Westfield. The Board of Education will do its very best …
Dolan outlines worst case scenarios.
Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan said one worst case scenario to tackle the Gov. Chris Christie's decision to cut $4.22 million in state aid from Westfield could be laying off between 50 and 60 Board of Education staffers. In a briefing to parents at Thursday morning's Parent Teacher Council meeting, Dolan discussed the process being used to identify cuts based on the figure announced by the Christie Administration on Wednesday. Dolan and BOE budget officials have been working with the knowledge of more massive cuts than originally planned since word leaked of the governor's proposed budget on Tuesday morning. A budget has to be presented to the county schools superintendent on Tuesday, with final adoption on March 30. Dolan, who …
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Westfield Board of Education
302 Elm St
/articles/christie-education-cuts-could-cost-50-60-boe-positions
13023
/locations/318256
Assemblyman said legislature will review governor's proposed budget.
Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (D-Westfield) challenged Assembly Democrats to help develop a plan that could ward off the drastic cuts to state aid proposed by Gov. Chris Christie. Christie's proposed budget, which includes calling for cuts to municipal aid and school aid, now heads to the legislature. The budget committees of both chambers will start conducting hearings. Bramnick, the Assembly Republicans' second in command and a budget committee member, said he is expecting the majority party Democrats to help develop a plan regarding Christie's budget cuts. "I think we know that there is tough medicine needed," Bramnick said about the governor's budget proposal. "There will be further discussion by the legislature. It is up to the Democrats …
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Schundler defends cuts, saying they will help control property taxes, won't hurt education.
The state Department of Education announced Wednesday that Westfield will lose just over $4.22 million in state education aid for the coming fiscal year. The numbers, posted late Wednesday afternoon on the department's Web site, call for a 90-percent decrease in state aid from the current budget. State aid will decrease by $4,222,169 in the coming year, a figure which represents 4.99-percent of the Board of Education's current $88 million budget. State aid for next year will be $448,345. This figure excludes over $7 million in specialized state aid used for debt service, Social Security payroll taxes, etc. Wednesday's figures added specifics to Gov. Chris Christie's announcement Tuesday of broad cuts in state aid for local school districts…
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Westfield Board of Education
302 Elm St
/articles/westfield-loses-422-million-in-state-education-aid
13023
/locations/317534
The process to be used to finalize the school budget proposal.
The process used to finalize the Board of Education budget will be more of a sprint than a marathon. BOE officials are mandated to deliver a balanced budget by March 30 for inclusion on the April 20 school election ballot. The budget will be presented to the county schools superintendent on March 23 and finalized on the 30th. The budget will take into account Gov. Chris Christie's decision to slash school aid by up to $4.25 million. The current budget proposals prepared by the BOE anticipated school aid being cut by up to $750,000. Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan said she will be spending today in meetings with the district's administrators reviewing every line item in the budget. She said that no line item is off the table for …
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Westfield Board of Education
302 Elm St
/articles/boe-budget-to-be-sprint-not-marathon
13023
/locations/316692
How can we see the budget? Is there a copy available for review? That is the only way to really see how to make educated suggestions for cost savings. more ›