Less than a month after voters rejected the 2001-2002 school budget, the Town Council and the Board of Education have agreed to deep cuts that both bodies said would not jeopardize teachers’ jobs or educational programs. The agreement was made public at a special Town Council meeting May 14.
After a joint committee of professionals from both bodies met, the Town Council announced it would cut $235,000 from the $20 million budget, the largest single cut in the history of the Secaucus school system.
“These cuts do not effect our children’s educational needs,” said Board of Education President Paul Amico.
After a school budget is defeated at the polls during a Board of Education election, it typically goes to a City Council committee for more cuts. The budget was defeated at the April 17.
The joint committee met several times since the election in an effort to come to a resolution. The joint committee was made up of Amico, Superintendent Constantino Scerbo and Board Administrator Ed Walkiewicz for the school board and Councilman Christopher Marra, Town Administrator Anthony Iacono, Town Chief Financial Officers Margaret Barkala and Mayor Dennis Elwell for the town.
“Our committee worked very diligently – nothing came easy,” Elwell said.
Although rumors claimed cuts would be as high as $412,000, town officials claim no cuts that deep were considered once the budget was examined closely.
“We found that what looked like a $750,000 surplus wasn’t what we thought,” said Iacono. “When we first met, we thought we could cut $250,000 from that. After meeting with the board’s finance committee we found out they had a $400,000 payment to make for health insurance. That left $300,000 and we couldn’t cut $250,000 from that.”
Instead, cuts were made in areas that would have no direct effect on classrooms or teachers. The expected purchases of maintenance vehicles this year was slashed from two to one. Reductions were also made in the budget line item for cleaning services and in other line items. Also cut in this year’s budget was a proposed $100,000 renovation to the high school track, an item that will likely reappear in next year’s budget.
“No program will be cut; no teacher will be laid off,” said Elwell. “We have not reduced any spending in the classroom for our children – not one computer, not one text book, not even on pencil. In fact, six new education positions are paid for in this budget.”
Town officials said these six new positions were budgeted to coincide with the expansion of the town elementary schools, which would provide 12 new classrooms to the school district.
Elwell said a review of the school budget showed that a significant part of this year’s increase came from a jump in health care insurance, something that has been impacting the town’s budget as well.
“We were not going to jeopardize health benefits to employees by cutting that part of the budget,” Elwell said. The town also agreed to restore to the school district a $22,000 Municipal Alliance Grant, part of a drug and alcohol awareness program that had once served to pay part of the salaries of several school district employees. Last year, the Town Council shifted funding for the anti-drug effort to the Board of Health, naming two coordinators instead of one.
Scerbo and Walkiewicz agreed the changes did nothing to diminish education in Secaucus.
“Our joint committee agreed that the changes suggested by town government officials made sense and recognize the voters will,” Scerbo said.
While the cuts also take $14,000 that was dedicated to text books, this money, according to Mayor Elwell, had fallen into limbo when school officials decided the text book edition was not acceptable for use in the schools. “So this money was budgeted, but would not have been spent anyway,” Elwell said.
On April 17, 60 percent of those who voted rejected the school’s original budget. But state law, the budget must be reduced by the town’s governing body. Elwell organized the joint committee to study the budget and make changes, provided the changes had no impact on the students.
“The voters gave us a mandate,” Elwell said. “They wanted a smaller budget. We got the message and made changes that will not harm any children, but respects our taxpayers.”