Schools

School Budget Cuts: How Neighboring Towns Are Dealing

A rundown of what budgetary changes other local districts are making to overcome the state aid cuts.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood and other local school districts have been scrambling to reduce their budgets since Gov. Chris Christie announced last week that state aid would be slashed across the state, causing many districts to lose several million dollars in anticipated funding. Because each district is dealing with these cuts differently, we thought it would be of interest to you to see what budgetary decisions our Union County neighbors are making.

Westfield

The proposed budget includes 30 layoffs, with most centered on classroom positions. Ten paraprofressional jobs are being eliminated, along with three librarians, guidance counselors at each intermediate school, two fine arts teachers, a basic skills teacher, six elementary school teachers, a kindergarten teacher, a high school special education teacher and a high school math teacher. One secretary, administrator, and custodian are currently being slated for layoffs under the proposal. Stipends were eliminated for the team coordinators at each intermediate school, along with the health coordinator position.

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Athletics are currently slated to lose intramural sports at the high school and intermediate schools, along with the loss of all interscholastic sports in the eighth grade. The proposal also eliminates several arts programs at the intermediate school level. The fall dramas at Roosevelet and Edison are targeted for elimination along with the discontinuation of the spring drama competition at the high school.

The board is proposing the implementation of a student activity fee to offset the costs of the district club and sports. The proposal includes a plan to eliminate the purchase of new library books for the school system, along with reducing school supplies and not purchasing new computers. Specifics on the savings can be seen here.

Find out what's happening in Scotch Plains-Fanwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Westfield created its budget under the terms of a new teacher contract that awards 3.9-percent annual raises and a new insurance co-pay. The contract was approved earlier this month.

Cranford

The new budget will eliminate 17 part-time and 33 full-time employee positions, including 12 teachers, three administrative personnel, five support staff, and 13 classroom assistants.

Other school cuts include the elimination of middle school sports and various high school coaches, reduction in co-curricular activities, and cancellation of summer maintenance projects. All school budgets have been decreased by 20 percent. The budget also proposes a $70 increase of taxes over last year for the average homeowner—an increase of 3.25 percent—and no emergency funds.

Springfield

Most of the cuts come from the general fund, which is decreasing by $1,709,350. In the absence of the $1.9 million in state aid, the district is proposing a tax levy increase of 3.97 percent.
Cuts will come from throughout the general fund, including personnel. The tentative budget projects that three administrative positions and two secretarial jobs will be cut. While the district projects a slight decrease in overall enrollment, expenditures such as benefits, out of district placement tuition and transportation costs, are driving costs up. Taxpayers, according to the projection, can expect to pay $91 more per $100,000 of assessed home value than they did the previous year as a net tax increase.

Summit

Summit hasn't revealed specifics on its budget, but its non-elected school board on Monday approved a $62,194,302 tentative budget that would raise taxes for the fiscal year by 5.8 percent or 4.1 percent for this calendar year. The tentative budget cuts expenditures by $1.4 million. The superintendent said the tentative budget leaves the vast majority of staff and programming untouched, and that the cuts they are considering aren't expected to have an impact on programs.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood

SP-F officials proposed a budget Monday night that would pass $1 million on to the taxpayers and cut another $2.3 million from operations, including two administrative positions ($145,000), four district staff ($244,136) and four secretarial roles ($185,000). In addition, summer/other salary would be cut by $147,300; contracted services by $187,500; maintenance repairs by $25,000; supplies by $29,000; equipment by $45,000; construction by $50,000, and other salaries and benefits by $1,253,713. The district must determine how exactly to cut that last $1.2 million, but the business administrator stated that the money is the equivalent of 25 teachers losing their jobs. 

The budget, as proposed, had taxes increasing by $295 in Scotch Plains and $440 in Fanwood for the average homeowner. In total, taxpayer dollars made up $74,967,662 of the $80,958,048 budget.

The board voted down a teachers' contract that proposed a 3.9 percent increase for union salaries in 2009-2010 and a 3.5 percent increase for 2010-2011; all employees contributing $250 toward their health care premium; the elimination of the Aetna HMO health care option; additional lunchtime supervision; and a reduction of daytime teacher conferences to three days from four. Changes to the budget could be made now that contract negotiations must continue.

The SP-F Board of Education presented its tentative budget on Monday. A budget hearing will be held at district headquarters on March 31.


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