Later School Start, Preliminary Budget With Tax Increase Approved In Bernards

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Later school start times and a preliminary budget with a 2.9 tax increase were approved by the Bernards Township Board of Education on Monday to close a multi-million dollar gap.

The proposed budget of $123,317,081 for the 2024-25 school year is an increase of 2.918 percent or roughly $3.2 million over the 2023-24 budget.

Superintendent Nick Markarian and Business Administrator James Rollo presented the budget on Monday.

When the Board began working on the budget last year the district was initially facing a $6 million deficit on the revenue side, said Markarian.

By January the Board was able to get that number down to $5 million. In February the Board learned it was slated to receive $8,263,018 in state aid, which is an 11.98 percent increase over last year. This dropped the gap to $4 million.

"To close the gap, we used a combination of strategies," said Markarian which included reducing expenses by $2,145,000 and increasing revenue by $2,056,366.

"I am really happy to say after this whole entire process of working throughout the fall and winter we were able to come to you tonight presenting a budget that is in fact balanced between expenses and revenue," said Markarian.

The budget includes a reduction in the Overall Personal Budget for $845,000.

"Where that will come from exactly has yet to be determined. We have to see how things go over the next couple of months in terms of retirements, attrition, and the way that our schedule and enrollment plays out moving forward in the spring and into the next school year," said Markarian.

The biggest reduction was moving to a three-tier busing schedule which would create later school start times. This would be a reduction of $1.3 million.

"In order to be able to save money in transportation we need to use our vehicles more efficiency. Currently, any of our buses are only doing one route for us," said Markarian. "In this scenaro, we are adjusting school start times to allow buses to be used three times."

Under the new busing schedule, William Annin Middle School students would begin school at 7:30 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. Ridge High School would begin at 8:20 a.m. and end at 2:58 p.m., and the elementary schools would begin at 9 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m.

"Given the situation we are in and the amount of money we were trying to save I felt this is the opportunity to take advantage of as much savings as possible in triple tiering our bus route," said Markarian.

The school times for the 2024-25 could still be subject to some "fine tuning" and possible after care may be needed if buses aren't able to get back in time for pick up, added Markarian.

"There is a sleep time issues with the high school students and there is a possibility of saving money with different tiers of bussing. Those two things are separate issues but given our financial situation and the need to close the budgetary gap, it made sense to talk about different ways to get this done," said Markarian.

On the revenue side, the district is using $1,753,588 in banked cap, $202,808 in fund balance, and $100,000 in anticipated additional extraordinary aid to bring the budget down.

Rollo noted the increases in the budget can be attributed to three main factors:

• Employee benefits which is up $758,839 or 4.3 percent
• Out-of-district tuition which is up $740,247 or 33.54 percent
• Student transportation which is up $632,058 or 8.67 percent

While assessed values of homes for 2024 are not available yet, Rollo projected the average home property value in Bernards Township will be around $9,099.94. He estimated residents would see a tax increase of anywhere between $160 to $200.

Included in the budget were also some projects such as paving the loop at William Annin Middle School, Ridge's HVAC, and district-wide flooring. The total cost of these projects is $2,401,920.

The preliminary budget was approved by the majority of the Board. Nimish Amin voted no to the budget.

"My vote against this is not for school start times or triple tier, which I do agree with. I think the budget should be more streamlined and look for places where we can have more cuts that doesn’t affect our class sizes, doesn’t affect our selection, doesn't affect our programs," said Amin.

Board Member Keith Molinari voted in favor of the budget but said he agreed with Amin.

"We should be looking for saving not just when we are up against it but when things are good," said Molinari.

Some residents and students spoke out against the later school start times citing its impacts to extracurricular activities and sports.

"I wasn’t originally a fan of changing the start times. I wanted to keep them the same but as I looked through the budget I saw the shortfall and saw there was really no way around it. We have to cut another $1.3 million that is going to hurt," said Board Member David Shaw.

Board Vice President Jennifer White also did not initially agree with the school start times but looking at the financial gap in the budget changed her mind as she didn't want to cut from programs or increase class sizes.

"It's not ideal. It's not my favorite but I feel that this is better than taking major, major cuts," said White.

"I think that given what we are dealing with this is the best scenario that we have come up with," said Board Member Robin McKeon.

A public hearing and final vote on the budget is slated for May 6.

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