The WW-P School Board, which seems to have spent much of its time working on the 2010-’11 budget under a black cloud, caught a brief glimpse of the sun during its February 9 meeting before things again went dark a few days later.
Based on enrollment projections, the district does not anticipate having to add any full-time jobs to the teaching staff in the coming year. The flat enrollment projections seem to be the only good news lately as the board continues to consider next year’s budget — up for vote on Tuesday, April 20.
But the news, in fact, would only get worse. Two days later Governor Chris Christie announced a new way of funding school districts that will likely result in the loss of millions of dollars in state aid to WW-P.
The governor said he will be cutting state funding to school districts as part of an effort to close the budget shortfall on the state level. This could mean a decrease of nearly $2.9 million for the WW-P district, said Larry Shanok, assistant superintendent for finance.
In a speech on February 11, Christie announced he was withholding $475 million in state aid to more than 500 school districts around the state, 100 of which lost all state aid for the remainder of the year.
Christie emphasized that his solution “does not take one penny from an approved school instructional budget,” and that it does not lay teachers off or raise new property taxes. Rather, “many school districts in New Jersey have surpluses that were not a part of their fiscal year 2010 budgets,” Christie said. “This is because they were either not anticipated — so-called excess surpluses — or were placed in a reserve account — so-called reserve surpluses. I am reducing school aid in a way that ensures that no district will have aid withheld in an amount that is greater than its surpluses.”
Shanok said, however, that the “excess surplus” is “actually tax relief in the subsequent budget year.”
Shanok said the issue relates to the state aid — a new formula for which was developed a few years ago. Under that formula, WW-P was supposed to receive $22.6 million. The state, however, capped WW-P at receiving $10.7 million. Last year, the district was not even given that full amount, as the state withheld $624,000 more.
Now, under Christie, the state will take away $2.9 million more and “refer to it as an amount that could be covered by excess surplus,” said Shanok. “The actual meaning of excess surplus, if you go by the Department of Education’s rules, requirements, and regulations, is tax relief in the subsequent school year.”
“So, he didn’t take money from the school district; he took money from the taxpayer,” Shanok added.
Many districts in Mercer County are trying to squeeze spending enough so they can get by without having to use any of the money deemed as excess surplus, he said.
“The $10.7 million the state sends us is important,” Shanok said. “It’s upsetting that the state kind of takes it as excess surplus.”
“It’s very difficult to be sensitive to the quite understandable taxpayer angst over the economy, but here the state isn’t making it easy by approving charter schools and taking away state aid money,” Shanok added.
Meanwhile, school officials will have to look at the flat enrollments as one way of holding the line on the budget.
Each year, projections are made by the principals at each of the district’s 10 schools as well as a board committee.
The enrollment projections, presented during the February 9 board meeting, show increases and decreases in enrollment from school to school, but officials are anticipating moving teaching staff around to accommodate the fluctuations.
According to the projections, Dutch Neck School, which had an enrollment of 763 as of October, 2009, will decrease next year. The principal’s projections show a decrease to 736, while the committee projects a decrease to only 750.
At Maurice Hawk School, with 827 students currently attending, the principal only projects an increase of two students next year, but the committee projects an increase to 847.
At Town Center Elementary, projections remain flat. Currently, there are 678 students, and both the principal and committee only project an increase of two students in the 2010-’11 school year.
Wicoff School shows an increase of roughly 30 to 35 students next year. Currently, 433 students are enrolled at Wicoff. The principal predicts an increase to 464, while the committee predicts an increase to 468.
At Millstone River School, where 869 are currently enrolled, projections remained fairly flat. The principal predicts a decrease of four students, to 864, for the 2010-’11 year, while the committee projects a slight increase to 874.
Village School also remained flat, with a principal’s projection of 652 students and a committee’s projection of 657 students for 2010-’11, a slight increase over the current 651 students enrolled.
At Grover Middle School, the principal is projecting a moderate decrease in the student population, from 1,096 to 1,061, while the committee is only predicting a decrease of one student to 1,095.
A decrease is predicted to be in store for the district’s other middle school, Community, where projections show that the current student population of 1,256 will decrease by between 25 and 50 students. The principal is projecting 1,205 students, and the committee is projecting 1,225 students for next year.
At High School South, the principal projects the number of students will decrease to 1,595 from 1,613, but the committee projects an increase of two students to 1,615. At North, the principal projects an increase of three students from 1,608 currently enrolled to 1,611. However, the committee projects 1,636 for next year.
Generally, the projections do not show a significant increase in the student population — just one that is shifting as the students move through the grade levels.
Even though there may be projections that show a significant increase in individual cases, like at Wicoff, Shanok said the projections reflect entire school populations, not individual grade levels.
“If it was all in one grade, it would be a class,” he said. “What we’ve done in previous years is if enrollment is fairly stable within a school, we may shift the sections. If you have a big third grade, and they’re leaving a school, you wouldn’t keep a lot of sections in third grade.”
That allows teachers to be shifted where they are needed, saving the expense of more staff. “The overall alert was that we’re not seeing significant growth,” Shanok said. “There will be re-alignment among grades — unlike the years when we were outright growing when we needed to add staff. Now it’s going to be more re-aligning.”
Budget discussions will continue at the board’s next meeting on Tuesday, February 23.
