School district will defer purchases to reduce tab

School district will defer
purchases to reduce tab
By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

SPOTSWOOD — The district will defer equipment and other purchases in order to reduce the defeated school tax increase by 2 cents.

Board of Education President Alan Bartlett said the district decided this week against purchasing computers, buying and installing fences, and buying new rugs, as was planned in its 2003-04 school budget. The about-face comes as a result of voters defeating the budget by a nearly 2-1 margin, and the Borough Council ordering that 2 cents be removed from the proposed 25-cent increase.

The change means residents will pay on a school tax rate of $4.12 per $100 of assessed valuation, as opposed to $4.14. The owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $70,770 will see an increase of about $166. The budget stands at about $19.3 million.

Bartlett said none of the cuts will affect the education of Spotswood students. The district will likely still buy the items but at a later date.

In order to cut the 2 cents, the district had to find about $40,000 worth of items to eliminate, he said.

The district planned to purchase four desktop computers, all for supervisors, but will instead ask supervisors to double up or use other computers, Bartlett said. The new computers were meant as upgrades.

He said the district also decided to defer the purchase of two rugs, which were part of the budget, even though the ones in need of replacement are over 25 years old.

The district will still replace one large rug because the current one is considered a health hazard, he said.

Also cut was new fencing for baseball fields at the Appleby School.

"We tried very hard to stay away from educational items." he said. "We did not want to cut anything that would affect the kids or affect the classrooms."

Bartlett said Business Administrator Derek Jess worked with the board and recommended which areas to trim in order to meet the goal of reducing the tax hike by 2 cents.

"He’s got the closest look into what everything is," Bartlett said. "We told him to do this with the least impact to kids."

One way to possibly pay for the items at a later date is to see how much money the district saves through teacher retirements. The board will likely know by the end of May how many teachers are retiring, as well as simply leaving, he said.

That does not mean the retiring teachers’ positions will be eliminated, only that they will likely be filled by teachers with less experience and thus will earn less money.

"It’s kind of a crummy way to balance a budget or get some of the things you need," he said, adding there is no way yet to know how much money will be saved.

As more funds become available, the district will begin purchasing the deferred items based on a priority list, he said. The rugs will likely be the first item purchased simply because of their age and the amount of wear and tear on them.

Council President Judith Ruffo, who is also liaison to the board, said the governing body had a very difficult time deciding how much money to cut from the increase. The council realized about 10 cents of the hike was for debt service, and another 10 because Helmetta is paying less in tuition than expected.

That meant the council had only about 5 cents to look at, and it had to keep in mind that amount reflected increased health-insurance costs for employees, as well as salary increases.

"We felt we could cut 2 cents without hurting them too, too much," she said.

Debt service stemming from the current building referendum was not actually part of this year’s budget. Residents have to pay it though, because they did pass the measure last year.

District officials were disappointed in April when the county ruled the formula used to calculate Helmetta’s tuition was inaccurate. The revised formula meant Helmetta saved money, while Spotswood had to increase its tax rate by 10 cents.

Milltown and Helmetta are both sending districts, and neither pays taxes for the schools. Their payments come in the form of tuition.

Helmetta sends all its students to Spotswood schools, while Milltown sends only its high school students.

Ruffo said the council did not want to order that specific areas be cut because the board had a better idea of where reductions would not harm education.

State law says governing bodies can recommend specific areas for cuts, but boards have the final say.

Bartlett said he can live with the 2-cent reduction, unlike the cut ordered by the council in 2000.

"We took a bigger cut than we could live with," he said, adding that textbooks were taken out of the budget due to the reductions.

Those textbooks were purchased later in the school year, however, he said.

"It didn’t even come close to that this time," he said.

The council has a better understanding of the school budget now, he said, and also realized the referendum was a big reason for the increase.

"They were complimentary of the board that night [when the bodies met to discuss cuts]," he said. "They saw the increase was mainly beyond our control."

He said the two entities also communicate much more frequently now.

"We’re working for the same taxpayers, so it’s in our best interests to keep them informed," he said of the council.