Budget axes fall on N.J. school districts

Bill Conley was frustrated.

Standing amid more than 100 people in the Cinnaminson Middle School cafeteria this week, the township resident questioned a school district budget proposal that calls for laying off 18 teachers and hiking taxes $383 for the average homeowner.

"Why is it always the teachers" who make the sacrifices, and not administrators earning three times as much, he asked Tuesday night.

"Some people might say, 'It's only $380 in taxes,' " said Conley, who has two children in the district. "I don't have any more to give."

Such scenes are playing out in similar meetings across the region this week, as school officials scramble to finalize their budgets by Saturday's deadline. At the hearings, often before overflow crowds, school boards are delivering the final tally of layoffs and eliminated programs, and making their cases for voters to approve the budgets on April 20.

The cost savings are largely to compensate for Gov. Christie's proposed $819 million reduction in aid to districts in the 2010-11 state budget. As they struggle to compensate for the unexpectedly deep cuts, many school officials have complained that Trenton has passed the burden to local taxpayers.

One-third of the districts in Burlington, Gloucester and Camden Counties have received permission to seek property-tax increases that exceed the state-mandated 4 percent cap, according to local officials.

Nearly all of the state's districts expect to lay off staff, and two-thirds will suspend some extracurricular activities, according to a survey by the New Jersey School Boards Association. Eighty-three percent of districts said the aid reductions also would result in higher property taxes, the survey found.

In the Lenape Regional School District, the impact of the state's fiscal crisis is dramatic. On Wednesday, the Board of Education approved a $139.7 million budget that would require $98.8 million raised from taxes.

The district plans to eliminate 133 positions, including 40 teachers, six administrators, and seven educational support staffers. Forty-three cafeteria employees will be let go as the district privatizes food service.

The district educates over 7,400 children from eight Burlington County towns. If the budget is approved, residents of homes assessed at their towns' average value would see their school taxes rise between $28 (in Tabernacle) and $171 (in Mount Laurel).

"One of the biggest concerns for us is, we have been a very highly successful school district. We're rich in programs and we're above the state national average in student achievement. Working very hard to maintain that in a negative political climate is a challenge," said Superintendent Emily Capella.

Under the budget, class sizes would increase and parents would be required to pay for their children's extracurricular and athletic programs, Capella said.

"But what we have avoided is cutting those programs. . . . The more involved a student is, the more successful a student is academically," she said.

In Gloucester County, more than 700 people attended a Wednesday night meeting at which Washington Township School District board members approved a $128.4 million budget that would raise the school tax 9 percent, or $180 on a home at the average assessment of $129,126.

The 8,700-student district still plans to eliminate freshman sports and lay off 65 employees - about half of them teachers. The district also will cut the hours of six food-service employees, shorten an administrator's term from 12 months to 10, and leave vacant 7.5 positions.

District spokeswoman Jan Giel said the cuts were the result of losing $6.4 million in state aid.

The district had considered layoffs of 270 workers before three unions agreed to concessions. Unionized principals and supervisors and nonunion employees accepted a wage freeze; a third union, which represents support staff, agreed to an hourly wage reduction of $1. All three unions and the nonunion staff will start contributing 1.5 percent of their salaries to health benefits.

The teachers' union is in negotiations with the district on cost-cutting ideas, Giel said.

The Rancocas Valley Regional School District plans to lay off 26 employees - 14 of them teachers - under a $38.3 million budget approved by board members on Tuesday.

The district will eliminate 17 coaches and several extracurricular advisory positions by cutting bowling, winter track, and cheerleading. It will scrap an evening program that allows adults to get their GED.

The budget calls for a school-tax increase of 4 percent. The district lost $1.9 million in formula aid and $150,000 in state funds to cover its debt service.

"So when the state says they don't want to raise taxes, they just did," said Robert Sapp, assistant superintendent for business.

Sapp expressed frustration over the short period school districts had to rework their budgets after receiving news of the aid cuts on March 17.

"This is how school districts and governments get themselves into financial trouble, because you don't take the time. . . . I think all of us are uncomfortable with those kind of time restraints," Sapp said.

To cope with a 51 percent cut in aid, the Mount Laurel School District plans to not fill 29 positions that will become vacant, including six teachers. It will drop district-sponsored field trips and the intramural sports program. After-school busing will be eliminated at the district's six elementary schools and reduced at the two middle schools.

The Board of Education has approved a $65.8 million budget that would raise school taxes about 3 percent - an increase of $70 for the owner of an average home assessed at $142,200, according to the district.

In Camden, the Board of Estimate voted on Wednesday to hold the current tax levy - but at a price. To meet its new budget, $23 million below the current year's, the district plans to cut 300 positions and may close South Camden Alternative School and Powell Elementary School.

In Cinnaminson, the $42.5 million budget would rely on $29.5 million raised from school taxes. Christie cut the district's aid $1.9 million, or 20 percent, from what was budgeted last year.

"We wouldn't be in this position" if funding had remained level, Superintendent Salvatore Illuzzi said Tuesday night.

The district is having cost-saving discussions involving employee benefits and insurance, and is offering incentives to retire, he said.

No one likes the budget, Illuzzi said. But he urged voters to approve it.

"We didn't do this; it was done to us," he said. "However, we have to live with the result."