Tentative School Budget Approved In Brick Would Cut 10 Jobs

BRICK, NJ -- The Brick Township Board of Education approved a tentative budget Monday night for the 2016-17 school year that would cut 10 positions.

The budget, pared down to $150 million from the $154 million presented by interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella last Thursday, includes a tax levy of $102.3 million, $2.298 million more than the 2015-16 tax levy of $100,000,721. The increase amounts to 2.36 percent, above the 2 percent allowed because the district had banked the amount it was below the 2 percent cap in previous years.

School districts had to submit their tentative budgets to Ocean County Executive Superintendent Todd C. Flora by Tuesday.

"Thursday night we could have put this through," said board member John Barton, one of two (the other was George White) who voted last week to approve the initial offering. "We need to get a tentative buget and then look at things carefully."

"I know the number of hours that you've spent working on this," Barton said, looking at Gialanella and Business Administrator James Edwards. "I have to thank everyone that was involved because it's arduous and tedious and miniscule when everything we're discussing tonight is going to change by May."

Board member Victoria Pakala questioned Edwards at length over figures presented for the school district's health benefits, asking why the cost was rising, and questioning why that conflicted with information presented last July when a contract agreement was reached with the district's teachers union.

In that agreement, Edwards and labor attorney Paul C. Kalac of the firm Schwartz, Simon, Edelstein and Celso, of Whippany said at the time, changes negotiated to the health benefits were expected to reduce the benefits cost enough to balance out the salary increases, not only for the current school year, but in 2016-17 and 2017-18 as well.

In the initial 2016-17 tentative budget presented last week, Edwards said the district's new insurance broker, Fairview Insurance Agency, of Verona and Cherry Hill, had estimated a 15 percent increase in the cost to the district of health benefits -- an increase, Edwards said, that was based on an incomplete understanding of the district's contracts.

Edwards noted Fairview was hired Feb. 24, less than a month before the tentative budget was due.

"We have not given the broker enough time to digest everything they need to digest to give us good numbers," Edwards said as Pakala pressed him on why the budget did not reflect the health benefits savings that was predicted when the teachers' contract was approved.

"Three weeks is not a lot of time for them to dive in and analyze all the information," Edwards said. "Their actuary still has not completed his analysis."

"Last year the board voted on a plan that said there would be a savings, but it didn't carry over to Year 2," Pakala said. "The (new) broker is saying this (the benefits changes won't cover salaries in Year 2."

"We don't know that yet," Edwards said.

Edwards said he spent several hours a day working with Fairfield to explain all the changes that were negotiated in the health benefits package -- changes, he said, that just recently took effect.

"We made five major changes to our benefits that didn't take effect until feb. 1, 2016," Edwards said. "When you look (at the cost) from Feb. 1 onward, we should see a reduction."

"Those changes, when you compound them over time, you should see that they will balance out" the raises, Edwards said, adding, "The broker who did all that work was terminated on Feb. 4."

"By April 28 you may still see that," Edwards said, referring to the board meeting when the budget is expected to be introduced.

The change in insurance brokers was one of several made immediately when Pakala, Board President John Lamela, George White and Stephanie Wohlrab were sworn into office on Jan. 4, in a move that board members Sharon Cantillo and Karyn Cusanelli questioned because of its timing in the middle of the school year.

Former board member Larry Reid asked about transportation costs, which are higher in the tentative budget.

Transportation was a major issue last spring and summer, when the 2015-16 budget was approved with a plan to cut as many as 30 bus drivers. That plan set off a firestorm, and then-interim Superintendent Richard Caldes and Edwards worked out a plan that reduced the cuts to 14 positions reduced out of the budget that had to be added back.

However, once the school year began, Edwards said, the district found it did not have enough drivers to do the job, and had to hire drivers back.

Funds were transferred from other areas of the budget to cover the salaries of those rehired, Edwards said, but that increase had to be reflected in the transportation budget for 2016-17.

"There are areas where you could save," Reid said, pressing Edwards and Gialanella to look further at transportation expenses, and Gialanella assured him that everything was being looked at.

Reid also asked if there will be public hearings on the budget before the plan is adopted and Lamela said there weren't any additional meetings planned but that the board would consider it.