As the WW-P school board continues to look at ways to keep costs down to limit this year’s school budget increase to 2.8 percent, some community members are calling for there to be no increase at all.
Officials are projecting preliminary numbers of $157.8 million for the budget, a $4.3 million increase over the 2008-’09 budget of $153.5 million. That budget represented a 4.3 percent, or $6.3 million, increase over the year before.
As discussions continued during the board’s February 10 meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Steve Mayer pointed out that curriculum and instruction “encompasses all those things that we do value in our classrooms.”
“The costs are directly attached to teachers’ salaries and benefits,” and they are also attached to maintaining the kinds of program offerings that allow students to get into some of the most prestigious colleges in the country, he said.
He said that officials may be able to find cost savings as they take a look at the program review, which is an ongoing five-year cycle. He said the first place officials can look is at the student-teacher ratios, where it may be possible to reduce staff. There are “positions in places where enrollment has lessened to a degree that would permit that kind of reduction,” he said. “Those are conversations that we are having. We’re really taking a hard look at our trends and our patterns in enrollment.”
Mayer added that he felt there are additional savings the district could obtain without cutting employees, but perhaps through attrition. For example, last year’s budget contained funding for just 3.5 new staff positions, but the new teacher orientation over the summer was held for nearly 60 new teachers.
Another way to look at cost savings is to look at substitute coverage — an area in which the district spends a good amount of money. Mayer said officials could take a look at how professional development plays out as it relates to substitute coverage and that principals could be told to raise the issue of curbing teacher absences.
Susan DiDonato, the supervisor of special services, also gave an update to the board. She explained that as of this year, there are 1,”116 students receiving special services in grades Pre-K through 12, with 159 students being placed out of district. There are 149 students who receive “speech only” services, but they are not classified as receiving special education.
She listed all of the in-district programs, created as far back as 1979, that are offered to students in special services. Half of them were added just between 2005 and 2008, the most recent of which is the MD/Autistic Program for Pre-K and kindergarten. “At this point in time, we’re not looking at anything next year that doesn’t already exist,” DiDonato said.
Despite the board’s efforts to keep the budget within a 2.8 percent increase, two community members spoke out during the meeting, asking the board to cut even more.
West Windsor resident Pete Weale, a familiar face at township and school board meetings, mentioned the stock market plummet on February 10 and the struggling economy. “In Princeton Borough, at the municipal level, the borough is striving for a zero tax increase, and I would like the board to basically ask its administration to see how close they can come to that.”
Further, Weale said, “some people are at least trying, and I’d like to see our administrators earn their salaries and see if we couldn’t try to” keep the WW-P budget to a zero percent increase as well.
In response, school board president Hemant Marathe said that factors like enrollment affect the school budget every year. “We work under a lot of constraints other governmental entities don’t have,” Hemant added.
Plainsboro resident Quentin Walsh echoed the sentiment. Walsh complimented the board for its work, but mentioned the zero percent tax increase in both Princeton and Hamilton. “I think the district needs to rethink” its position, he said. “Given the current environment, the 2.8 percent tax increase is going to be a very hard sell.”
The board will continue discussions during its next meeting on Tuesday, February 24.
