Monroe board proposes tab with 3.8-cent hike

The Monroe Township Board of Education is proposing a 2009-10 budget that would raise taxes $67 on the average home.

The budget includes added costs due to the installation of eight new temporary classrooms at Applegarth Middle School, and the equivalent of 11.3 new teaching positions at various schools. The teachers are needed to address increased enrollment, meet state Core Curriculum standards and to continue expanding in-class support for special needs students to meet state and federal guidelines.

"These staff members are necessary at the elementary and high school levels to address the increased enrollment in certain areas and programmatic additions/changes in others," Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Hamilton and School Business Administrator Wayne Holliday wrote in a budget memo to board members.

In an effort to reduce costs, the budget calls for the elimination of three administrative positions. Board Vice President Lou Kaufman, who chaired the board's March 16 meeting in the absence of Board President Amy Antelis, said the positions being eliminated are assistant superintendent of personnel, a tech department post and a staff assistant.

The budget totals $100.4 million, an increase of nearly $3.4 million from the current school year. If the plan is adopted, the tax rate would increase by 3.8 cents per $100 of assessed value, or $66.54 on a home assessed at the township's average of $175,100. School officials said this is the lowest tax increase since 1999.

"This is a great feat for the expansive, high quality programs and initiatives underway," the administrators wrote.

Driving the budget increase is a 4-percent rise in salaries, for $2 million, and a $2.2 million increase in employee benefits. The only new student program in the budget is freshman lacrosse for boys and girls.

Board member Rita Ostrager, who opted not to seek re-election in April, voted against the tentative budget at a March 16 meeting. Ostrager had proposed several changes, none of which were acted upon by the board. Among her proposals was a oneyear salary freeze that she said would save $2 million.

"Given the current economic environment, with massive layoffs and unprecedented instability in the financial markets, no one outside of government is getting a pay raise," she said.

Ostrager said the budget is asking taxpayers to accept an increase in the tax burden while reducing spending on student activities, student services, guidance, health, libraries, classroom supplies, materials and textbooks.

Ostrager also proposed that employees be required to contribute half of the increased benefits costs, in order to save $1.1 million. She suggested the board eliminate three vice principal positions to save $400,000.

"Across the state, schools operate with an average of one school administrator per 500 students," she said, noting that Monroe has 5,408 students, so it should need 11 administrators. Instead, it has 16 principal and vice principal positions. If the number of administrators were reduced to 13, Ostrager said, the district would still have a ratio of 416 students to one administrator, still below the state average.

"Because of the unique configuration of our schools, Barclay Brook and Brookside could easily share a vice principal, as could Woodland and Mill Lake, since the pairs of schools are geographically close and students transition within the pairs from lower grades to upper elementary grades," she said.

Also, Ostrager suggested pushing off the new sports program, for $50,000 in savings. She said lacrosse can wait for another year.

When asked about Ostrager's recommendations, Kaufman said decisions must be based on what benefits the most students.

"It can be very subjective," he said. Because of the Internet, students do more research online and not as much at the library, he said.

According to Kaufman, there is a good chance that over a long period of time, more students will benefit from money going into the sports program, as opposed to purchasing books that may be available at the township library.

As for Ostrager's one-year wage freeze proposal, Kaufman said the school must be run like a business. A board member since 2001, Kaufman said that when he began his tenure there were a lot of issues between the staff and administration.

"We worked long and hard to develop a relationship with the staff," he said. "We must operate the way a regular corporation does." He cited competitive salaries and benefits as necessary to retain staff and a quality program.

"We can't [freeze wages] if other districts aren't doing the same — and no other districts are doing that," Kaufman said. If all districts in the state came together as a unified body and said that the days of complete covered compensation and benefits were over, that would be a different story, he said.

Hamilton, who took over as superintendent last month, said he could not speculate on why the board did not pursue Ostrager's recommendations. He said that perhaps the other members considered the fact that administrative cuts were already being made.

Hamilton said the announcement of the eliminated administrative positions was not expressed publicly March 16 because officials wanted to be sensitive to the affected employees who were present at the meeting. "I thought it would have been insensitive to do so," he said.

The board will hold a public hearing on the budget and vote on its adoption April 2. The public will then be able to vote on the budget and elect board candidates in the April 21 school election.