Residents Raise Questions of Other Potential School Savings

Residents in attendance at Monday night's defeated school budget forum raised questions about a number of other areas that could lead to savings, in addition to the $860,000 mandated reduction by the two councils.

Here's a glimpse at what was discussed.

Retirements

The school district has as many as 25 teachers eligible for retirement this year, according to Anthony Novembre, the consultant hired to help the councils with the process. One resident questioned whether all of those positions will be replaced. Superintendent Margaret Hayes said that there's certainly a minimum number of staffing that needs to operate the schools, and that in many cases a teacher who retires will be replaced. She stated that there may be the potential for some additional savings in this avenue, but that others costs may have to absorb it relative to the negotiated settlements.

State Mandates

One resident questioned where the board stands on self funding and whether they're tracking the various costs associated with paying for state mandates that go unfunded by those in Trenton who require them.

"We're reaching the point where we're about to tell the state to go to hell," Board President Trip Whitehouse said as claps erupted in the room.

Whitehouse explained that it was frustrating to lose $3.8 million in state aid, particularly when the state's true aid formula would have the district receiving over $11 million in assistance. He noted that if the district hadn't lost that $3.8 million, taxes would have gone down in the board of education budget.

Still, he said: "That $600,000 (in aid received for 2010) is still important to this district, and some of the mandates that we don't receive money for are not morally right to tell them to stick it. Transportation-related expenses for special ed, some additional services, they've stopped funding, but we can't tell that child or that family the state is no longer funding that, so we aren't. There's a moral aspect to that."

Another parent raised the issue of the mandate that requires the district to provide transportation to students in nonpublic schools.

Business Administrator Anthony Del Sordi stated that the district is currently looking at whether they have to continue these payments since they're no longer receiving the state aid. He said the costs equate to over $200,000.

Health Plan

The district has already anticipated a $500,000 savings in health care costs now that all employees must contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries to insurance. Del Sordi noted that the change could help offset some of the other costs they're seeing.

Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr said that one of the recommendations from the councils was that the unions and employees also move to the state health benefits plan, which she said could save an additional $1.5 million.

"That's real money, substantial savings," she said, noting that Fanwood municipal employees made the switch this year, prompting the borough to only see a 3 percent rise in health care costs, compared to the 18 to 20 percent it was anticipating under its previous plan.

Board President Whitehouse said that the state health plan is not new to the district and that it has been discussed and is still being discussed as part of the ongoing union negotiations.

Vendor Contracts

One parent challenged the district to look more closely at its vendor contracts and see if they couldn't negotiate some savings there.

"When do we look at the business model differently?" he asked. "There's no way we're getting quality service for some of the money we're investing in some of these services. They're probably more open to agreements and negotiations than ever before … I find it hard to live in a town and pay the taxes I do and hear my daughter's school is out of paper by April. I think we can probably do a heck of a lot better with vendor agreements. Somebody said before we're going after the smallest part of budget when I think you have bigger fish to fry. I would start with vendor services and work my way out."

Crossing Guards

Another resident questioned the potential for moving to volunteer crossing guards, noting that such a change has been instituted in southern California, where his two sons live.

Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool noted that the towns – not the schools – pay for crossing guards, and that if they were to make that move, the money saved couldn't be passed on to the school district. She pointed out that the township has already eliminated $40,000 in crossing guard costs by recently eliminating lunch time guards.

The man stated that even if the money could not be handed over to the school district directly, perhaps the reduction in the municipal tax could help offset any increase from the schools and help save a program there.

Supervisors

One resident challenged the need for content supervisors, which he deemed "superfluous staff" in times like these. Superintendent Hayes argued, though, that the SP-F district does not have layers of administration and that the elimination of supervisors would affect the quality of education over time.

"We are very lean as judged by our comparative costs with other districts," Hayes said. "One of the things we don't have are employees to do staff development – we rely on supervisors for that, we rely on them for technical instruction. They're also charged with the responsibility for looking at the curriculum and maintaining essentially in many respects the quality education as much as a classroom teacher is."

Pay Freeze

A number of parents continued to call for the teachers union to accept a pay freeze as part of their settlement, which has yet to be reached.

"I find this whole process rather unfulfilling," said David Bernstein. "You saw a resounding vote, and with amount of money I'll save, I can't take my family of four to the Scotchwood Diner and get a good meal. One thing you did take away are athletics, the things my kids enjoy most in school. You keep taking the scalpel to the smallest part of the budget, the portion that doesn't effect salaries and benefits. ... I'm still not sure what we're accomplishing with no agreement of a wage freeze. Once again the kids have lost. You may not want to call it directly in the classroom, but all the things you decrease around the classroom affect the kids."

While both mayors noted that they did talk to the union representatives while working to make the cuts, they said they had no say in negotiations. The defeated budget, they noted, assumed a zero salary increase for teachers and their having to pay the newly mandated 1.5 percent in health care coverage. If the unions don't ultimately agree to a salary freeze, then that will mean more cuts must be made to the budget.

The administration at the schools has already accepted a pay freeze, the mayors said.

"While you save $860,000, that's only a tentative number," said Lisa Germano. "When you're telling me my taxes are still going up and we are still not negotiating a zero freeze... We all have to take a break here. It's the students that count and you are cutting programs out."

Layoffs

Fanwood Mayor Mahr said that when they started this process, she requested information on the number of staff reductions that have occurred since 2007-2008 and was surprised to learn that the number was 31. The 2010-2011 budget, prior to its defeat, called for the layoff of another 10 staffers, bringing the cumulative number to 41 within the past few years.

With the $860,000 reduction, Scotch Plains Mayor Malool stated that an additional four staffers will lose their jobs and two will have them reduced to part-time. She noted that the reduction did not call for any teacher layoffs. 

"I think it's very important for you to know that the administration, the Board of Education, has tried very hard to keep within that 4 percent cap and keep out of classroom as much as humanly possible," Mahr said. "That's sort of where we went when we started this project of ours. We knew we had to do reductions, that we had to see savings in the tax, bill but we also needed to understand what's been done and next year going forward have an understanding of where we're moving forward from today."