School District State Aid Increases — But Is Still Below 2009 Levels

Updated 10:30 a.m. Feb. 24, 2012: The article has been updated to reflect comments by the Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian Osborne.

The state aid numbers for school districts were released today and the news is good for South Orange-Maplewood.

Aid will be increasing from $3,310,958 for the 2011-12 budget year to $4,075,898 for the 2012-13 school year — for an increase of $764,940.

However, the amount is still less than the district received from the state as recently as three years ago: In 2010, the state , prompting dramatic cuts — in particular leading the district to for special education students.

The response from Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian Osborne referenced the fact that aid level is still recovering from the 2010 cuts: "We are grateful to see state aid increase this year, which will allow us to offset some of the cuts we were anticipating having to make to programs. Even with this welcome increase, SOMSD is only projected to receive about two thirds of the state aid that we received in 2009, before the state cut aid to SOMSD by a devastating $5.3 million, or 82%.”

At the Feb. 22, 2012 Board of Education meeting, Business Administrator and Board Secretary Cheryl Schneider presented a draft 2012-13 budget of more than $114 million with $3.3 million expected in state aid. It is not known yet how the increase in state aid will change the anticipated budget.

The state aid is not given in a lump sum to be used indiscriminately: $259,803 is for transportation, $3,667,370 for special education, and $148,725 for security. 

In the draft budget, the anticipated expense for transportation is $4,650,638.  Special education and security was bunched into the ‘other expense’ category which is expected to cost $26,796,235. 

Schneider gave some assumptions for the budget, including that the cap levy would remain at 2% and that excess surplus from 2010-11’s audit was $1,517,905.

The anticipated expenses for the 2012-13 budget increased by $3,442,868 from the previous year. Salaries have increased by $1,856,329, which Schneider said was “higher than expected,” but includes some “extra headcount.”  Despite the salary increases, benefits cost didn’t rise nearly as much as the district is anticipating paying just $101,207 more in 2012-13.

One anticipated decrease in expense was the district’s energy expenses which are predicted to go down $30,145.  Schneider attributed the decrease to the installation of solar panels at South Orange Middle School and Clinton School.

The Board of Education will discuss the budget again at the March 5 meeting, where they are expected to adopt a preliminary budget to send to the Essex County Superintendent’s office for approval.