N.J. schools brace for possible aid cuts

Lay off teachers and staff and increase class sizes. Ax sports programs and clubs. Scrap class trips and keep the school band home. Eliminate programs, put off repairs, scuttle faculty training, and raise taxes - if possible.

Those are some of the scenarios New Jersey school district officials are considering as they await word on whether Gov. Christie will cut education funding in next year's budget, which he will propose March 16.

Faced with a $2.2 billion deficit in the current budget, Christie on Feb. 11 issued an executive order that slashes $475 million in aid to schools and will force districts to spend their surpluses and reserve funds to make up the shortfall.

Christie vowed the cuts would have no ill effect on education this school year. But school administrators say they had planned to use the surpluses to offset anticipated flat or reduced state aid in the next budget. They are being punished for being fiscally prudent, they said.

Then last week, the governor and acting Education Commissioner Bret Schundler repeated advice issued by the Corzine administration: Districts should prepare for possible aid cuts next school year - even 15 percent.

Given the lack of aid specifics and the tight time frame for school boards to approve tentative budgets once figures are released, district officials are creating various scenarios, including the doomsday variety.

"We're scrambling right now, and things are changing rapidly," said Gary Dentino, Waterford School District superintendent. "We don't see light coming through to us. We only see dark."

Last year, the Corzine administration used $1 billion in federal stimulus money to plug a budget gap and maintain or, in some cases, increase school aid. With the stimulus money, the state budgeted $7.9 billion in direct aid for kindergarten through 12th grade this school year, according to the state Education Department.

There's no indication the federal government intends to send states additional school stabilization aid.

"The billion is gone, and that creates a bigger problem," Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said.

The administration will strive to get districts as much aid as they were promised this year, Drewniak said, but that will require filling the billion-dollar hole.

It is too early in the budget process to know whether districts will fare better or worse than a 15 percent cut, he said.

This year's stimulus money, in many cases, made a significant difference. Collingwood's $1.4 million was enough to retain more than 20 staffers, according to Superintendent Scott Oswald.

Rather than tap the reserves of financially responsible districts, Oswald said, the state should help reduce districts' expenses by trimming unfunded mandates and unnecessary regulation and controlling special-education costs without lessening service.

"I am not the governor nor his counsel and do not know what he can legally do," Oswald wrote in an e-mail, "but until we attack expenses, each year will bring additional cuts."

Christie and Schundler have called on lawmakers to pursue possible cost-saving measures, such as reworking pension and health-care systems.

Under the governor's executive order, Cherry Hill is losing $3.9 million - about 25 percent of the state aid it was promised. District officials said $3.5 million was surplus the district planned to use to cover possible cuts in the coming year's budget. The district set aside the money without increasing property taxes and despite having to eliminate 63 positions.

Without the surplus, if Christie cuts aid 15 percent next school year, officials project an additional 173 job cuts - about 10 percent of staff.

"What is most upsetting to me is how this will impact the kids in these schools," e-mailed Elana Krutoff of Voorhees, whose husband, Kevin, is a nontenured Cherry Hill teacher vulnerable to layoff. "The quality of their education is going to fall."

To replace the aid the state is withholding, districts are supposed to use up to 100 percent of their so-called excess surpluses - any surplus that exceeds 2 percent of their operating costs. Under Christie's order, many districts also are having to spend portions of other reserve funds.

Only one district of more than 100 in the tri-county area - Westampton, a two-school district in Burlington County - won't be touched by Christie's executive order. That's because the district has no surplus of any kind.

H. Leo Leroux, the district business agent, said the district already had emptied those funds for program enhancements, physical improvements, and tax relief.

Rather than across-the-board cuts, Christie said, he was focusing on surpluses to prevent deficits in districts that rely heavily on state aid.

Christie's plan doesn't leave districts without resources, Drewniak said. "We're not forcing [school districts] to deplete their emergency surpluses."

But many districts, as well as others in the education community, say forcing districts to spend excess surpluses may seriously compromise education throughout the state.

The Education Law Center, which advocates for low-income, largely urban districts, said making districts use their excess surplus now would likely result in tax increases in middle-income and suburban districts, and in cuts in staff and programs in poor, academically struggling districts.

According to a law center analysis, 40 percent of aid that Christie cut this year will come from the so-called high-needs districts. Camden, faced with drawing nearly $8.1 million from its surplus and reserve funds, is among the top 10 districts with the largest reductions in aid.

New Jersey School Boards Association members hope the governor finds alternatives to a drastic aid cut next school year.

"We're hoping this isn't a done deal," said spokesman Frank Belluscio, "because 15 percent would have serious implications."

Last week, the association lobbied the Legislature to exempt districts whose budgets stay within a tax-increase cap from putting them up to a public vote in April. Districts may need more than the five weeks between the release of aid figures and the scheduled vote to deal with the cuts.

Nevertheless, local school officials are preparing for the worst. Some, even those that have frozen much of their spending, are looking for more areas to cut. Since personnel costs are the majority of districts' budgets, officials say staff may be hard to spare.

With the anticipated state cuts, local revenue uncertainties, and declining enrollments in the last two years, Moorestown school officials predict staff reductions for the first time in about 20 years.

Palmyra is looking at laying off teachers and cutting clubs and athletics, Superintendent Richard Perry said.

"In a small school district, that's what you build your community on," he said.

Robert Sapp, assistant superintendent for business, said the Mount Holly-based Rancocas Valley Regional High School District would look at just about everything that's not core classroom - class trips, sports, a security officer, programs like one that helps boost student interest in engineering. How bad it will be depends on what aid figures the state releases next month.

"I've been doing this for 35 years," Sapp said. "I've never seen it as frightening as this."