The WW-P School Board on March 18 approved a 2010-’11 budget for submission to the Mercer County Board of Education. But the document is so far from what voters will see in the April school elections that the district is reluctant to release its numbers.
Larry Shanok, assistant superintendent for finance, said that the package being submitted to the Mercer County Board of Education in time for the state’s March 22 deadline is a 1.2 percent increase over last year’s budget. But that’s the only number he would release.
The plan does not reflect a 71 percent loss in state aid — $7.56 million — that the state informed the district about only days before the submission deadline. The aid figures were released on March 17, a day after Governor Chris Christie announced his intent to drastically cut state aid to school districts by $820 million.
“The real budget of interest is still yet to come,” Shanok said. “We have to submit a budget to the county on Monday and it had to be adopted. It will not serve us to go into 2011 with it. There’s not a lot of usefulness achieved by spending a lot of time talking about it.”
The budget being submitted to the county only reflects a 15 percent cut in state aid. Administration and the school board will work on an amended spending package reflecting the full loss of state aid in time for the budget public hearing on Wednesday, March 31.
“Clearly by the time the hearing comes we will have to have another plan,” said Shanok. “We will be moving to another number, as I suspect just about every suburban school district will be doing.”
Shanok made his displeasure with the governor clear. He said Christie delayed and “gave himself extra time to consider his budget speech.” Meanwhile, the state was telling the district to plan for a 5, 10, or 15-percent cut in state aid. “And then they came in with 71 percent,” said Shanok, calling the number a “bombshell.”
“The governor granted himself a delay in his speech, but he’s not granting (school districts) a delay to do anything about it,” Shanok said. So the school board decided to submit the budget with a 15 percent state aid cut and work “with care and consideration” on a new plan in time for the public hearing. “Just because governor has acted quickly, we are not inclined to act as precipitously as he did.”
Cutting the budget won’t be easy. Shanok pointed out that Christie, in his speech, spoke of providing districts with tools to help them cut costs. But none of those tools are in place.
“Right now we have a budget with a 15 percent reduction in state aid. We have got to get the other 56 percent decently accounted for,” Shanok said. “Without any tools provided. He provided no means of dealing with existing contracts. He gave us nothing to deal with employee benefit plans. What’s he going to do to keep our utility bills from rising? It’s interesting that he speaks of a toolbox, but the toolbox appears to be empty.”
