School Officials Thankful for Community Support

The meeting room at the East Brunswick Board of Education meeting room was filled with a few cheers and a few hugs last night as voters approved the 2011-12 school budget.

“Were extremely appreciative of the support of the community,” said Superintendent Jo Ann Magistro shortly after the results were in.

Voters approved a $128 million school spending plan Wednesday that called for a $108,924,563 tax levy by a vote of 2,524 to 2,060.

The budget carries a school tax rate increase of 9.88 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That means the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 can expect to pay $98.80 more in school taxes next year. The budget calls for the elimination of 25 full time teachers.

Voters also re-elected incumbents  , 2,812 votes; Todd Simmens, 2,626 votes; and , 2,565 votes, to three year terms on the school board.   was seeking his first term and received 1,819 votes.

Of the township’s 30,473 registered voters, approximately 4,710, or 15.46 percent, cast ballots Wednesday.

“We’re thrilled that the budget passed,” said Simmens, the current school board president. “We worked very hard to put together a budget that was both lean and kept our programs intact.”

Lachs echoed Simmens thoughts.

“I’m very, very happy with the results,” she said. “It speaks a lot of the incumbents and they job they’ve done.”

“I’m thrilled the budget passed,” said Spiegler.

Expected revenue in the proposed budget includes $108,924,563 in the amount to be raised by taxes; $15,145,501 in state aid; $1,211,656 in fund balance; $1,074,679 in one time expense refunds, which includes reimbursement for rent paid to use Corpus Christie School; $677,573 in one time Federal Education job Funds, $500,00 in extraordinary aid; and $520,157 in other revenue.

An earlier draft of the budget called for $138,809,177 in expenses, but would have resulted in a $2,755,048 shortfall.

To bridge the gap, the district $1,829,349 in teaching staff reductions, including seven full-time teachers in kindergarten through fifth grade, and 16 full-time teachers in six through 12, including four from Hammarskjold, six from Churchill and six from the high school. The district also will be eliminating two world language teachers in grade four, one bilingual elementary school teacher, one counselor, one student assistant specialist and one media specialist.

The district also will eliminate $731,978 in support staff by making 40 full-time school aids and instructional assistants into 80 part timers, and eight full-time school aids into 16 part time positions.

The district also expects to save $193,721 by eliminating the Summer Academy and replacing it with support during the school year and $31,500 in home instruction and other costs.

Despite the cuts and tax increase, according to School Business Administrator Bernard Giuliana, the amount to be raised by taxes has changed very little over the last several years, and said tax increases should be blamed on a decrease in state aid, including a mid-school year grab of more than $5 million last year.

In 2010, state aid was cut mid-year by $5,008,573 when the governor announced that certain school districts with enough “surplus,” or fund balance, should use that money instead. Giuliana said the money needed to make it through the rest of the year wasn’t surplus, but money earmarked for the 2011-12 school year, the same year it's planning for now.

Just a few months later, for the current school year, the district took a $6,633,436 in state aid hit, and lost an additional $423,969 to the School Development Authority. It also had to deal with a required $1.3 million payment for a new charter school, and an additional $2.4 million in cuts from the Township Council.

According to Giuliana, East Brunswick received $20,087,014 in state aid for the 2008-09 school year; $15,527,825 for the 2009-10 school year, a drop of more than 22 percent; and $13,817,220 in 2010-11, a drop of more than 31 percent from 2008-09. For the current year, it expects to receive $15.145 million, an increase from the previous year, but still below previous numbers.

During the same time, the general fund tax levy, the amount to be raised by taxes, has remained largely the same. In the 2008-090 school year it was $106.086 million; in 2009-10 it was $106,086 million and for the current year, it was $106,788 million.