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Board Narrowly Approves $2.4 Million In Budget Cuts, But Not Without Complaint
By Keith Hagarty
By a slim 4 to 3 vote, the township board of education reluctantly approved $2.43 million in cuts to the 2007-2008 school budget on Monday. The vote resulted in a 4 cent reduction to the originally proposed 8.75 cent tax rate increase.
In April, voters defeated the proposed $132.8 million budget, a 2.4 percent increase over last year. Following the voters' rejection, the township council contracted a special auditor to review the budget. The auditor recommended slashing the budget to $130.4 million.
The new 4.75 cent tax rate increase per $100 of assessed property value means a township home assessed at $150,000 will pay about $71 more per year, or about $6 more per month.
"A defeated budget puts everyone in a difficult position," said Superintendent Thomas Gialanella. "The $2.4 million cut in the budget this year will only compound a tax increase next year."
With that in mind, board member Marty Speilman voted against the budget cuts. He believes the school district is going to get into trouble by accepting the revisions, and will inevitably short-change the future generation of students in Jackson.
"With the cuts that were made and imposed upon us, there's no margin for error anymore," said Speilman. "We're working with a smaller surplus to begin with, and now it's cut way down, and I think they (the council) did us a disservice."
Other board members voting against the budget cuts were Sharon Dey and John Morve.
"Teachers have been affected, the consolidation of certain classes will be affected and things that we want to do, like some of the construction we'd ordinarily like to do in the summer, such as bringing buildings up to par, or restoring them maintenance-wise, we now have to hold back on that and make sure we have enough money just to get through the school year," said Speilman.
One of the other notable cuts to the budget include $150,000 less in energy costs.
"In this day and age, to say our energy costs are going to go down by $150,000, when we haven't even opened up the second floor of the new (Jackson Liberty) High School yet, and we still don't even know what that amount is going to end up being, is kind of ridiculous," he said.
Whenever voters defeat a budget, there are no easy answers and no one is happy, said Speilman.
"It's tough," said Speilman. "You can't say cuts are not going to affect education. Cuts affect education because if there's something cut, then programs are going to be affected, teachers are going to be affected and the whole educational system is affected."
Although she voted to approve the budget cuts, Board President Linda Lackay said it was done so with reservations.
"It is my belief that the town council has placed the Jackson school district in a precarious position by forcing us to gamble on upcoming expenditures that are only likely to increase- such as energy and transportation," said Lackay. "As well as leave the district with virtually no reserve to address unexpected expenses, such as building repairs- with six of our 10 schools are already 30-plus years old- or the enrollment of highly specialized needs students."
With the adopted budget cuts, Lackay already fears what consequences are still yet to come from the fallout of next year's school budget.
"The town council's auditor admitted this would be a one time 'fix' that could not be sustained for next year's budget, thus requiring a very large tax increase this coming school year," said Lackay. "Clearly, the town council demonstrated neither support for the foundation of education in the school district, nor long term regard for the taxpaying citizens of our fine town."
The 17 teaching jobs lost in this budget don't just impact the teachers, but also the overall academic opportunities offered to the students, said Delores Harvey, president of the Jackson Education Association.
"When that happens, programs are affected," said Harvey. "We can't have (staff cuts) occur and not have programs affected."
"These things occur not because the district does not understand the importance of providing a thorough and efficient education for every student," she said. "These things happen because budgets are defeated year after year after year after year, and what begins to occur is that we have to cut back on those very things that we have been praying for- and that is our students' achievements- year after year after year."
While she understands the voters' concerns about taxes, Harvey said it disturbs her to continually see the children being the ones who suffer from the continuous defeat of Jackson's school budgets.
"Let their voice be heard at the ballot box in April to say that educating students is a paramount importance to all of us," she said.
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