Brick School Board Approves Plan To Meet $720K State Aid Reduction

BRICK, NJ -- The Brick Township Board of Education approved a plan to use surplus and several appropriations cuts to account for a $720,507 reduction in aid from the state.

At a special meeting on Thursday, the board approved the plan that calls for the district to use $361,934 in surplus and make cuts totalling $358,573 to make up the gap created when the state Legislature approved the 2017-18 fiscal year budget.

The aid cut was part of a statewide reallocation of some $36 million in "adjustment aid" that affected more than 100 school districts agreed to by Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto as part of a deal to get the state budget passed earlier this month.

The $720,507 was less than the nearly $2.2 million in cuts originally proposed by Sweeney and Prieto, figures that were reduced after an uproar from local school districts over the proposed school funding. The school funding plan also included $100 million that was distributed to districts, many of which have been faced with significant growths in enrollment in recent years.

Items cut to reach the $358,573 included a 100-gallon water heater and bathroom partition and a van for Drum Point Elementary School, totaling $44,000; interior doors at Brick High School and at Brick Memorial and exterior doors at Veterans Memorial Middle School, for $81,000, as well as a shut-off valve and new lighting needed at Veterans Middle School, a cut of $15,000.

It also includes anticipated savings of $104,797 in the salary line for the director of planning, research and development, savings created when Thomas Gialanella was moved from the role of interim superintendent into that position while Filippone was named acting superintendent.

"No positions or programs will be cut. Most of the equipment was to replace existing machines that are aging out," Filippone said.

Also among the cuts: a shed for Osbornville School ($2,500); a Toro Workman utility vehicle ($10,000); four floor polishers and two air processors for clearing bacteria and other items that cause sick building sydrome ($13,130); a laminator for Midstreams School ($2,850); an end zone camera for Brick Township High School's football field ($4,000), and replacement sports banners for Brick Township High School ($16,000).

The banners have been a point of contention in the past. During discussions of renovating the East Gym at Brick High School including replacing the flooring and bleachers that had been in place since that portion of the building originally was built in the 1960s, the banners -- many of which are tattered and discolored after decades of hanging -- were cut from the renovation because of concerns about the cost of the project.

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