HOBOKEN—The city’s public school district must give more money than originally anticipated to local charter schools for the 2014-15 school year, district business administrator William Moffitt said at a Dec. 9 meeting of the Hoboken Board of Education.
After fall enrollment numbers showed a higher concentration of Hoboken residents in charter schools than had been projected, the district’s full payment to charters this year will total $8.5 million, $216,871 more than expected.
Hoboken currently has three charter schools, and some residents attend nearby charters in Jersey City.
The board majority has made some negative comments against charter schools this year and has made a legal move to keep one local charter school from expanding. Charter schools are considered public schools, but they are usually founded by parents and educators, not the district.
In New Jersey, public school funding follows the child—if a Hoboken resident attends a charter school, the Hoboken district is required to pay the charter school 90 percent of that students’ education costs, as determined by a formula.
This funding system has been cited by school board members as the main factor behind their decision to challenge the expansion of HoLa Charter School to seventh and eighth grade in court. None of the candidates in the recent school board election publically endorsed the lawsuit, and one actually reversed her stance on it before the election. However, several advocated strongly for changing the law so that charter schools would instead be funded directly by the state.
Currently, the pre-determined per-pupil cost is around $12,000, meaning roughly 18 more Hoboken residents are enrolled in charters this fall than had been projected.
In light of charter school payment bump and a $669,000 reduction in school choice aid announced in July, Moffitt said the Hoboken school district has instituted a spending freeze on general and discretionary items. Spending on health and safety and other items deemed necessary is not included.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the district’s auditor Dieter Lerch presented his report on this 2013-14 school budget. According to Lerch, the district was able to maintain a $1.5 million surplus.
Lerch explained that school budgets must be balanced under the New Jersey constitution. “The only way a surplus is created is if you don’t spend everything that was budgeted,” he said.
Moffitt said the district’s surplus fell within state limits, which permit a surplus equal to two percent of the operating budget.
The district had devoted $700,000 of its 2013-14 surplus to a maintenance reserve, $100,000 to a capital improvement reserve, and $500,000 to paying down its food service deficit.
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