School Board Delays Budget Adoption Due to State Aid News, Calls Time Crunch 'Astounding,' 'Moronic'

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education has postponed the adoption of its tentative budget until Monday evening to give board members three days to adjust it in light of the district's significant loss in state aid.

"This was a surprise," Board President Trip Whitehouse said Thursday of the state's $3.8 million aid reduction to the district. "We don't have time to whine or complain. We've just got to come up with a plan."

Since the district found out Wednesday afternoon that it would be losing $3.8 million from the state, Scotch Plains-Fanwood has been scrambling to restructure its plans for adopting the budget before the state's March 31 deadline.

Members of the finance committee and district officials have been corresponding about the cuts ever since they learned of the impact. They've also been communicating with other NJ school districts, all of whom are suffering from the same problem. Between now and Monday night, the board must reach a tentative decision on what the total budget number will be.

During the Board of Education meeting Thursday night, Business Administrator Anthony Del Sordi reported that after taking into account the aid cuts and some other additional revenue, the district's total net deficit for the 2010-2011 school year will be $3.4 million.

Del Sordi said the district essentially has a few options to make up for that loss: either raise taxes by that much, cut operations by that much, or do some combination of the two.

The district must submit its tentative budget to the county next Tuesday, March 23. Between then and March 31, the date of the public hearing, the board will work to continue to hone the details of where reductions can be made.

Del Sordi noted that the district went into its budget planning process anticipating about a 10 percent reduction in state aid, based on the message that came to them from Trenton and from Education Commissioner Bret Schundler. Consequently, the board worked under the assumption that it would only be losing several hundred thousand dollars from its nearly $80 million budget.

"Unfortunately we were wrong," Del Sordi said.

Instead, Gov. Chris Christie announced Tuesday that the district would lose 5 percent of its total operating budget. The unexpected shift has left districts across the state in a panic.

"He lied," Whitehouse said of the state education commissioner, who said this week that districts knew what to expect. "In no uncertain terms did he talk about the overall budget. At the end of the day I took offense to Schundler implying that school districts knew it was coming and chose to ignore it."

Officials from districts across the area maintain that at a Garden State Coalition meeting in Summit last month, Schundler advised them all to prepare for 10 to 15 percent cuts to their state aid, not to their budget as a whole.

The district had been anticipating approximately $4.05 million in state aid for the 2010-2011 school year. It will now receive just $659,090, Del Sordi said. The district received $4.5 million in aid last year. State aid makes up the second largest portion of the school budget after local sources.

"Regardless of where you stand on what the governor is trying to do, the process we now have to go through is nothing short of moronic," said Board member Donald Parisi. "These are weighty decisions we have to make. We will be thoughtful, we will be level-headed, but something has to be done in a very short order."

So what will the impact be to taxpayers?

Well, the worst-case scenario would be the district dumping the entire deficit on to taxpayers, causing an increase of approximately $675 to Fanwood residents and $447 to Scotch Plains. But, Board President Trip Whitehouse said Thursday: "I can say with confidence it's not going to be that number."

Del Sordi noted that Fanwood's contribution to the budget continues to go up because the equalized valuation in the borough has dropped at a lower rate than Scotch Plains. This year, Fanwoodians contributed 22.25 percent to the budget. That was estimated to rise to 22.68 percent, before the district learned of the state aid cuts. Scotch Plains' contribution had been estimated to drop from 77.7 percent to 77.3.

On Thursday, the board appealed to community members who have suggestions for how to handle the deficit to contact them with those ideas.

"This was unheard of, an astounding reduction," said Board Member Betty Anne Woerner. "There was no hint of this. When the governor announced it to the public, we couldn't believe our ears. We will be working around the clock."

Parents in attendance said they understood the burden the school district is faced with.

"There are many of us in the district who get that a $3.4 million cut is catastrophic," said PTA member Cindy Clancy Warren. "We live in a state that's so broken that local school districts will now be 99 percent funded by taxpayers. Is there any other state like this?"

A few parents pleaded with the board not to cut the Terrill Middle solar project out of the budget, but Whitehouse assured them that it's not part of the operating budget and thus won't be impacted.

One father advised the board to operate more like the private sector and renegotiate contracts, accept volunteers and do whatever else necessary to tighten expenditures.

"There's so many areas where things can be cut by changing the way you do business, not laying off teachers," he said.

Board President Whitehouse said he's already received several phone calls from parents with suggestions, and that he hopes to receive more.

"We can't have a pity party," he said. "We need to keep moving forward."

The board's special meeting to approve the tentative budget will be Monday at 7:30 p.m. at district headquarters.