A $91.1 million school budget for 2001-2002 was passed by the West New York Board of School Estimates on March 29. The five-member board, chaired by Mayor Albio Sires and including two commissioners and two members of the Board of Education, meets once a year to adopt the school budget. This budget, which shows a total increase of $9.2 million, maintained the same tax levy that the Board of Education has collected for the past 13 years. The total tax levy is set at $12.6 million, just 13.8 percent of the total budget. Much of the budget will be paid for by $64.1 million in state aid and $3.1 million in federal aid.
The state aid amount is up 3.1 percent from last year. This is largely due to the $13.2 million in Abbott “special needs” district funding that the district will receive for the 2001-2002 budget, more than double the amount of Abbott funds received during the current year. Abbott funding is given to urban districts to strengthen their educational programs.
Approximately 27 percent of the budget, or $24.8 million, will be spent on faculty and staff salaries. The rest of the amount goes to benefits, transportation, maintenance, equipment and supplies.
Whole school reform
The largest increase in spending shown in the 2001-2002 budget is spent on Whole School Reform, a state-mandated initiative in all Abbott districts that encourages community and parent involvement in the schools. The 2001-2002 budget anticipates spending $26.8 million on whole school reform, while this year only $2.9 million was spent.
According to Board of Education secretary Edmund Bienkowski, only one of the district’s six elementary schools is using a Whole School Reform Model now. Public School No. 3, the smallest of the district’s six elementary schools, was the only school in the district to be following a reform model. However, in the 2001-2002 budget, all of the district’s elementary schools will be following one of these models.
Bienkowski said that each of the schools has chosen the same Whole School Reform Model, the Comer Model, which focuses on parent involvement in the schools.
Early Childhood program
Since West New York has already been providing a full-day early childhood education program, the new state-mandated full-day program, expected to begin in September, will not take a large toll on the budget this year. The district budgeted approximately $5 million to its Early Childhood Education program, virtually no increase from this year’s budget. The budget also includes $1.8 million in funding from the state Department of Human Services to help place students in other districts when necessary.
The town is expecting to service 775 pre-school students in 2001-2002. Three hundred and fifteen of those students will be housed in-district, while 220 4-year olds and 240 3-year olds will be placed with outside providers.
The Board of Education is also expecting to add four more trailer classrooms for early childhood education. This will be paid for by the state Economic Development Authority.
Bienkowski said that the funding from the Department of Human Services and the Economic Development Authority can be found under Other Restricted Miscellaneous Revenues which has budgeted $2.1 million.
The district is also building a new Early Childhood Center which will accommodate 150 4-year olds. This center was budgeted in the 2000-2001 budget.