The West Windsor-Plainsboro school district was scurrying to adjust its 2010-’11 school budget on March 18, a day after the governor’s axe chopped $7.563 million in aid to the district.
The state aid figures were released late on March 17, a day after Governor Chris Christie announced in his budget address his intent to drastically cut aid to schools districts by $820 million.
According to those figures, WW-P will only receive $3.127 million in state aid next year, down from the $10.7 million it received last year.
School officials warned that the reduction in state aid will create changes to the $159.3 million preliminary budget the board had previously drafted. The school board was scheduled to vote on an adjusted budget on March 18 — after the News’ deadline — in order to submit the budget by the state-mandated deadline of Monday, March 22. [Visit www.wwpinfo.com for updated information.]
“We had anticipated there would be changes based on what the governor had been saying all along, but we weren’t expecting this drastic of a change, which is a severe reduction, not just for WW-P, but for suburban districts,” said Gerri Hutner, the district’s director of communications, on March 18, as officials prepared to head into day-long meetings to get the budget ready for vote.
“We’ve been very cost-efficient and conservative in our planning,” added Hutner. “We’ve been very careful in the budgets we put forward to the public, and it hits us hard. We had anticipated some change, but we had not anticipated this degree of reduction.”
The $7.563 million reduction represents a 71 percent decrease in the total state aid given to the district. The Montgomery and Princeton Regional districts saw 65 and 67 percent decreases, respectively. Hopewell Valley saw an 85 percent reduction in state aid. More urban districts saw fewer reductions in state aid. Trenton, which will receive $242.1 million in state aid next year, saw a reduction of $12.4 million, a 5 percent reduction.
Under the previous formula, the WW-P district stood to receive about $10.7 million, the same amount it was given in the 2009-’10 year. The district included that number in its preliminary budget for the upcoming school year, which it presented to the public on March 9.
That preliminary $159.3 million budget for the 2010-’11 school year, as it existed before the state aid numbers, would increase taxes by 3.8 percent.
Using those figures, the overall budget represents a total increase of 2.2 percent — $3.4 million increase over last year’s $155.9 million budget.
The March 9 presentation broke down the figures in specific areas of the budget, including a proposed 3.4 percent increase in regular instruction to $52 million.
Larry Shanok, assistant superintendent for finance, said a large portion of that increase came as a result of $800,000 the district has to pay to the new Princeton International Academy Charter School (see page 12) for tuition of an estimated 75 students.
Co-curricular and athletics saw an increase of 0.7 percent to $2.4 million, while special services saw an increase of 3.4 percent to $23.4 million. Student support makes up $6.4 million — a 0.9 percent increase — and administration makes up $11.3 million of the budget, a 2.2 percent increase.
In the area of improvement of instruction and professional development, there was a 14.9 percent decrease to $2.8 million. Shanok said realignment and a decrease of three positions contributed to the decrease. Building and grounds saw a 0.6 percent decrease to $12.4 million.
Staff benefits will increase to $25.5 million — a 5 percent increase.
The transportation budget will see a proposed decrease of .09 percent to $9.1 million. Shanok said officials will “squeeze a little more” out of the budget by realigning bus routes, most likely resulting in longer trips for students.
Two areas of expenses remained flat — the capital outlay budget of $1.5 million and the adult school budget of $9,286. Debt service dropped by 2.3 percent.
In the elementary and middle school budgets, officials will leverage declining enrollment. At the high school, officials are streamlining co-curricular programs and reducing costs not directly associated with class size and course offerings, like supplies and printing costs, Shanok said.
At the time, though, the budget reflected only a 3.4 percent decrease in state aid, including the $10.7 million base as well as debt service support. The reason the district showed a decline at that time was because in previous years, the board accounted for extraordinary state aid, which was left out of this preliminary budget because officials did not think they would receive it next year, Shanok said.
How the new numbers will affect the budget was still unclear. The district in its budget presentations so far, had counted on $10.7 million in state aid.
Christie also said he was trying to cap annual property tax increases at 2.5 percent through a constitutional amendment, more stringent than the current 4 percent cap. Only local referendums would permit tax increases above 2.5 percent.
On March 17, Shanok referenced Christie’s suggestion that districts be given tools to keep the cost of union contracts from increasing more than the caps on property tax increases.
“He said nothing about tools to keep wage increases to 2.5 percent or less, or health premium cost increases to 2.5 percent increases,” said Shanok. “I’m a little unsure of where all these tools are.”
Officials were still determining on March 18 which areas would be affected by the state aid reduction. “It will change it,” said Hutner. “We’re in meetings all day today to finalize that before tonight’s meeting.”
Hutner said officials will be deciding which changes and reductions have to be made, but said that those changes would be made carefully. “Any changes will have the least effect on the classroom,” said Hutner. “Our goal is to protect our environment. But with these changes, we will have to go back and see what has to be done to meet our obligations.”
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Wednesday, March 31. School board elections and voting on the budget will be held Tuesday, April 20.
