School board adopts budget with 4-3 vote

BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer

Brick residents will now vote on a 12.5-cent tax rate increase for the school budget on April 19.

At the Board of Education’s March 30 public hearing of the budget, the $124,310,790 budget was approved by a 4-3 vote. Board members Dr. William Boyan, Catherine Lindenbaum, John Paredes and Daniel Woska voted to approve the budget; members Sharon Kight, Frank Pannucci and John Talty voted against it.

The school district’s 2005-06 spending plan was introduced at 12.8 cents but approximately $173,000 in reductions were made to reflect the new 12.5-cent tax rate increase, school Business Administrator Nicholas Puleio said at the March 30 public hearing of the budget.

The district’s total proposed budget increased by 3.77 percent from last year — from $119,937,970 in 2004-05 to $124,310,790 for this coming school year. Approximately $73.8 million of that budget will be raised by the tax levy, as opposed to approximately $68 million that the tax levy raised for last year’s budget.

If approved by voters, the 12.5-cent increase will bring the tax rate from $1.552 to $1.677 per $100 of assessed value. The owner of property assessed at the township average of $141,777 would see a $177 increase in their school taxes, according to figures provided by the school district. For the owner of a home assessed at $100,000, school taxes would rise by approximately $125.

Boyan said he voted in favor of the school budget because he believes the expenditures are justified.

“We’re certainly not overspending money,” Boyan said. “We’re shortchanging our children.”

Pannucci said he voted against the budget because “last year I voted against the double-digit increase; I said it wouldn’t fly and I was right.” He said he’d rather the school district implement small, steady increases and “give the budget a chance to pass rather than giving the budget a high number, which is practically a death sentence.”

Paredes said the cost of running the district is going up, but state aid has remained stagnant.

“People, wake up. The problem isn’t here; the problem is in Trenton,” Paredes said. “I’m not going to shortchange the children of this township because the people in Trenton and the people in Washington won’t do their job.”

Kight said she feels there were times that the district has wasted money and wonders how often money was spent on things such as overtime when it was not necessary.

“You have to have trust and I have to tell you, I don’t have that, and I can’t vote for something I don’t trust,” Kight said.

After Boyan, Pannucci, Paredes and Kight made comments during the March 30 meeting, Talty began making his comments, saying he was not pleased with how money was spent in the district recently, particularly concerning the recent raises given to administrators.

At this time, Paredes used a move found in “Robert’s Rules of Order,” a manual of parliamentary procedures, known as “calling the question.” Board of Education attorney Nicholas Montenegro explained that “calling the question” would bring an immediate halt to the board’s discussion and automatically call for the board’s vote.

The board voted 4-3 to end discussion, with the same board members voting in favor of ending the discussion as those who voted in favor of the school budget. Then, after the vote on adopting the school budget was taken, the public was allowed to speak.

Board of Education candidate Dan Rosa questioned why the public was not allowed to speak before the board voted. Montenegro explained that because Paredes “called the question,” the vote was taken right away.

Sharon Rosa-Bohrer said she was disappointed to see how Brick’s schools ranked on the state’s Comparative Spending Guide.

“I’m seriously reconsidering living in this town,” Rosa-Bohrer said. “I think it’s [the school budget] a real disservice to the kids.”

Cynthia McCarthy told the board that she had a petition to ask the state legislators to balance the way schools are funded — pointing to the Abbott school districts that receive the majority of state funding.

“I’m happy that the people up here finally realize there is a problem,” McCarthy said.

School officials have spent time during board meetings over the last couple of months reviewing items that impact the school budget. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Thomas Seidenberger has said that three years of defeated school budgets, the new spending cap law S-1701, and the stagnant contribution from state aid has forced school officials to make some hard decisions.

S-1701 required all districts to decrease their unrestricted fund balance to just 3 percent last year, and this year it will be moved down to 2 percent, the superintendent said. In addition, the overall budget could not increase more than 3.01 percent under S-1701. However, certain items, such as special education, are not included in the overall budget cap, hence the reason for the 3.77-cent overall budget increase, Puleio explained.

The 12.5-cent tax rate increase doesn’t leave room for some things in the district, including the regular-education preschool classes. Seidenberger said last week that the district’s regular-education preschool program, which has about 60 students in it now, is not state mandated. However, the program may be saved by charging tuition, he said.

The district will also cut 22 staff positions and two assistant coaching positions. Puleio explained that the soccer program will not be eliminated, just the two assistant coaching positions will be cut. He said the number of students participating has not been high enough to require those positions. However, Seidenberger promised that if a larger number of students turn out for soccer next year, the district will find money for more coaches.

All of the staff cuts will be made through “attrition,” Seidenberger said, so no one will lose their job. He explained that as people leave the district or retire, those people simply won’t be replaced.

The district will save approximately $1.13 million by cutting these positions. Eight of the 22 position reductions are for certified teachers.

Brick taxpayers will vote on the school budget on April 19; polling hours are from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. and voters will vote at the same polling place where they voted in November’s presidential election.