Hopatcong Schools to Save Extra State Aid For Next Year

Last week Gov. Chris Christie said the Hopatcong school district would receive an additional $340,000 in state aid that could be used for the 2011-12 or 2012-13 budget as part of the $850 million he gave to the state's public schools.

Days later Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf said the state wanted districts to "strongly consider" using the extra funds toward property tax relief and set a Tuesday deadline for schools to make up their minds.

On Monday Hopatcong schools Business Administrator Thersea Sierchio said the district was heavily leaning toward using the money to plug a hole it expects to have in next year's budget. Sierchio said the district doesn't forsee getting another $440,000 in Edu-Jobs money it received last August.

"That's a one-shot deal," Sierchio said. "We got it last August and had the option to use it last year. We used it for this budget because we knew that we were going to get a 2-percent (property tax) cap. Without that (money), I don't know how we would have been able to operate."

Timing was also a problem for Hopatcong schools, she said. The district learned about the additional funds, which could have brought the amount of state aid in the 2011-12 budget almost $700,000 higher than what was in last years', last Tuesday but didn't receive an official note on how it should apply the money to property tax relief until Friday morning.

Then it was too late.

"They didn't give us any time to compile all of it," Sierchio said. "In fact, we didn't get the guidelines. We didn't know what we could spend it on. It's still somewhat unclear."

Sierchio said she would have needed two days' notice to publicize a meeting with the Hopatcong Board of Education since the board's official paper, the Star-Ledger, accepts ads for its Sunday edition until noon Thursday.

"There was no way," she said. "I haven't had an opportunity to discuss it with my full board yet. And what they want us to do is go in, reopen the budget and just take the money we're going to be given and apply it directly to a reduction in the tax levy."

"We are not in a position to do that," she continued. "So we can either use it for next year, which is my recommendation for the simple reason that we were able to make sure that everything was status quo because we got (President Barack) Obama money. And we got an additional amount from the governor."