5 Things To Know About The Proposed $2.2M State School Funding Cuts For Brick

BRICK, NJ — There is less than a week until the 2017-18 fiscal year begins. And in less than a week, the Brick Township School District could be stripped of nearly $2.2 million in funding that was promised earlier this year.

Brick Township officials — along with legislators and officials from other towns and school districts — have been speaking out against proposed cuts that are part of a deal negotiated by Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto that involves spreading $100 milion in school funding to districts in need across the state.

The deal, announced June 14, also includes $25 million for preschool funding. It also shifts $46 million in what is called adjustment aid — money that was distributed to school districts under the 2008 School Aid Reform Act. Some districts around the state received increases in aid, which was primarily aimed at districts that have seen a significant rise in enrollment. But some school districts — including Brick and Toms River — have been targeted for significant cutbacks. In Brick, that cutback is nearly $2.2 million.

So what exactly does this mean for the Brick schools and their students? Here's five things to know:

1. The property taxes you pay to help fund schools in Brick Township will not go down.

When the proposed cut to the school funding Brick Township receives from the state initially was announced, the response of many was "good, cut the budget, cut our property taxes." That's not what will happen. Property taxes won't go up for the 2017-18 school year because the amount to be raised by taxation already is set, but the cuts will have long-term effects that more than likely will lead to property tax increases down the line.

2. The $2.2 million in cuts would take effect immediately and will mean program cuts.

Part of the Sweeney-Prieto deal that designed the school funding shifts is for this to take effect in the 2017-18 fiscal year budget that begins July 1. That means school district officials will have to make $2.2 million in cuts to a budget that was formulated starting last October and approved by the state Department of Education in April — two months ago.

Because the district's budget was formulated based on advice from state officials telling districts to expect the same level of school funding they have received for the last few years, the $2.2 million was allocated in a number of ways, including to new programs.

Though the knee-jerk response is often "cut administrators" or "cut teachers," reaching $2.2 million will mean steep cuts that affect nearly every aspect of the students' schooling.

"In this year's budget are included some critical teaching hires," interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said last week. Those hires include another teacher for the district's STEM academy, a dance teacher to meet a state mandate in arts education, and a drama teacher. Those hires could be among the first things cut. Other possibilities include cutting sports and other extracurricular activities — which cost the district $322 per student. And that's just the start.

"We had a small tax increase this year and we got a lot out of it," Gialanella said. "All of those things (the new staff and programs) could be wiped away." Those decisions ultimately would be made by the school board.

“This proposal hurts districts like Brick Township that have been impacted by Superstorm Sandy, and has been one of the lowest spending districts in our state while providing a high quality of education for our students," Board President John Lamela said. "Instead of celebrating our successes, we are being punished for our staff and students hard work."

3. The district already was receiving less state funding than it is supposed to under the funding formula.

The funding formula includes several pieces, including the total property tax base in a school district, how much of the budget is being funded by property taxes, and estimates of the impact of students whose first language isn't English and the impact of special needs students. All of those factors are figured in and an estimate made of how much state aid a district needs to educates students is decided.

The funding formula also sets minimum figures for the expected tax levy for districts — similar to when you apply for financial aid for college, there's a figure that is determined to be the district taxpayers' fair share of the education costs.

The tax levy combined with state aid gives a figure results in a determination of whether the spending is over or under adequacy in terms of what the state says the district should be spending on its students.

Brick's budget is considered to be under adequacy by $29.1 million, in terms of state funding shortages, cumulatively since the School Funding Reform Act, according to the Education Law Center.

4. A similar amount of funding would be cut next year.

The funding deal that Sweeney and Prieto made would include a cut of similar magnitude in the 2018-19 school year. That means the district will be looking for ways to cut $2.2 million more when officials start the budget process in the fall. Where those cuts will come from is anyone's guess in a district that spent $17,308 per pupil in 2014-15, roughly $2,000 less than the state average that year. That figure includes debt service. In 2015-16, the district's per-pupil spending was $18,047, ranking it 43rd lowest out of 101 districts of similar size, according to the state Department of Education's Taxpayer Guide to Education Spending.

5. Underlying problems with the funding formula will not be addressed.

From the time the School Funding Reform Act was in theslative process in 2008, flaws and concerns about the formula were raised in hearings along the way. Among them: the formula does not include any mechanism to make sure all districts are operating from a similar starting point.

William Doering, business administrator in the Toms River Regional School District, said there are a number of districts that have not had property revaluations in 20 or 30 years, and that impacts whether their ability to pay for their schools is adequately assessed — which in turn affects the amount of aid they receive. Conversely, Toms River and Brick (and several other districts facing cuts) have had more current property revaluations. In addition, he said, there is nothing that rewards districts that keep spending per pupil low.

"I testified in 2008 that the formula had these problems," Doering said. "Fully funding the formula (which many have pushed and is estimated to cost $600 million more than the $8 billion currently spent) doesn't fix them."

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