The state Department of Education has announced how it will divide the $268 million in funding sent to New Jersey from the federal Education Jobs Fund bill. The WW-P school district stands to receive $354,301, but how that money will be used remains unclear.
The state DOE released the funding figures on September 20, but according to school officials, they have not yet received official confirmation, nor instructions regarding how to use it.
The WW-P school district fared better compared with other similar districts in Mercer County. By comparison, Princeton Regional received $180,594, while Robbinsville received $96,663. Montgomery’s school district received $179,465. A majority of the funding, however, went to Trenton, which received $7.55 million, and Hamilton, which received $2.5 million.
WW-P school officials say they do not know how the $354,301 will be used, and whether it will even be beneficial in the long run. “There are a bunch of regulations that pertain to it,” said Larry Shanok, the district’s superintendent for finance. “In the simplest form, it’s for compensation and benefits for existing employees or, if somebody’s gone, you could bring back.”
Until officials have official notice of the funding award from the state Department of Education, and until they have more information about how it will be used, they have not decided how they will use the funding.
Still, regardless of whether the district uses the $354,301 to offset current employee costs or to bring back teachers cut in this year’s budget, the money could create more headaches for school officials as they head into this year’s budget season.
“If we get that money, and if it is usable, I suspect we’ll have to use it in a way that is sustainable,” which means the district has to find something that does not require future costs because of its potential impact on the 2 percent tax cap in the upcoming budget.
“If you bring teachers back, and you have a 2 percent cap next year, are you going to bring them back and then let them go in June?” Shanok said.
The other question is whether that $354,000 can be added to next year’s budget, which accounts for a fair amount of the 2 percent cap. “Will it allow us to do that? Then that will be a possibility, but it’s not particularly clear.”
“Hopefully the governor will make it clear about how it sits with the cap, which we have to keep into account,” said Shanok. “We need other information to go along with it. It will probably be coming in the weeks to come.”
Shanok also said it was “striking how little of the money goes to the majority of Mercer County districts.”
The federal bill, aimed at saving education jobs, was passed in August by the U.S. House of Representatives to provide $10 billion to help states avoid teacher and staff layoffs in the coming year. Of that money, $268 million was sent to New Jersey.
According to information from the federal Department of Education at the time, “that $10 billion fund will support education jobs in the 2010-’11 school year and be distributed to states by a formula based on population figures. States can distribute their funding to school districts based on their own primary funding formula or districts’ relative share of federal Title I funds.”
While the School District’s $155.9 million budget received voter approval, the flat measure reflected a $7.56 million loss in state aid this year. To cover that gap, the district had to eliminate some 50 teachers.
