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Opinions Mixed On Defeated School Budget
Town Council Moving Ahead With Review Of School Spending Plan
By Keith Hagarty
When voters overwhelmingly defeated the 2007-2008 school budget last month, it marked the sixth year in a row that the budget has been rejected.
The defeated $132 million budget was $3.1 million, or 2.4 percent, more than the 2006- 2007 budget, with a general fund of $120.3 million and a $65 million tax levy.
The proposed 8.75 cent tax rate hike per $100 of assessed valuation would have meant a Jackson homeowner with property assessed at $150,000 would have seen an increase of about $131 per year, or nearly $11 per month.
But voters said no, and now as per state law, the governing body is tasked with reviewing and potentially reducing the budget.
As the township council now reviews the budget and soon decides what, if any, cuts are necessary, public opinion differs on the fiscal management and direction of the school district.
Delores Harvey, president of the Jackson Education Association, said she's been impressed by the cooperative efforts between the school district and the current township administration and governing body regarding the rejected school budget.
"There have been so many times that there has not been that level of support," she said, reflecting on what she's observed between the town and school board over her 30-year residency in Jackson.
Harvey placed much of the blame for the continued failure of the district's budgets on the state's calculation of school aid, saying the mandatory four percent cap is based on student population numbers that are now more than seven years old.
"One thing you have to understand," Harvey told the council, "is as you go through and review this budget, it is very difficult to say that cuts do not hurt the students."
With 22 staffing cuts already planned in the defeated budget, Harvey reiterated what she said is a need to retain and attract as many top-notch educators as possible to the district. She fears the continuous stream of defeated school budgets will become a black eye for the town, unfairly giving the impression of waning public support for their children's educational needs.
"I need to tell you how important it is to make sure that we keep the high quality staff that we've been able to provide for this town," she said.
Resident William Skowronski, of Hampton Drive, knows the board of education faces many tough decisions, but said the unpopular decision sometimes has to be made in order to keep taxes in check, while still providing a quality education for students.
"I understand school board members do what I do not have the time to do: to pour over a complicated budget, to make appropriate cuts and hope it all works out," said Skowronski. "I elect the school board members to represent my interests and provide an educational system that will train our students and make them productive citizens. I elect the school board members to provide a system that is the envy of every public school district in the state of New Jersey. I elect school board members to do all of this, and do it at a reasonable cost."
Eliminating the 22 teacher positions will only further increase classroom sizes on the already overcrowded classrooms, Skowronski told the council.
As a senior community resident, Stan Goldhomework, man, of Spyglass Drive, said it's unfair for Jackson's senior voters in town to traditionally take the brunt of blame for the school budget's defeat.
"This budget would have been passed if all the parents in the overpopulation of this town came out to vote," Goldman said of the 3,178 to 1,811 vote to reject the budget.
The senior residents are not against education, said Goldman, they are against the overspending of money that many residents simply do not have.
"We've made schools. We've continued to pay school taxes," said Goldman. "We recognize that the value of our homes, as well as every other home in this town, is dependent upon the schools. The better the schools, the better the community."
The biggest problem facing Jackson, and a majority of school districts throughout the state over the last five years, has been the state's school-aid funding formula, which Mayor Mark Seda said over-funds urban districts while all but neglecting the suburban towns.
"We can't fix it alone, and we can't fix it in one shot," said Seda. "People outside the suburban areas don't care about this (state aid funding formula), so ultimately we in the suburban areas pay the difference."
Seda sent out a petition to municipalities in New Jersey last month demanding the state change its funding formula, however so far he has only since received 52 signed petitions back.
"You can't keep asking the same group of people to continue to pay more and more without a fair and equitable balance," said Seda.
Bob Hutchins, a certified public accountant, was recently contracted by the township as a special examiner to review the defeated budget. He will be meeting with members of the council's liaison subcommittee to the board of education on Monday, May 21 at 7 p.m. in the fine arts building of Jackson Memorial High School.
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