JACKSON – Board of Education members reluctantly introduced a tentative budget amid the grim news of the school district’s $6.2 million cut in state aid funding and concerns that one of its 10 schools could be put up for sale to raise funds.
Superintendent Nicole Pormilli outlined the dire situation that has brought the district to the brink of a financial cliff. She stressed that while it was required by state law for the school district to introduce its budget during the March BOE meeting, that the spending plan remains a work in progress.
She also addressed concerns that Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School at 60 Citadel Drive would be closed and sold as a means to raise money. She expressed that such a move would present other issues and would not solve the school district’s long term fiscal problem but that all avenues would be considered in the weeks to come.
Rosenauer has approximately 237 students in grades pre-kindergarten to 5th grade with a student-teacher ratio of 9 to 1.
“This is a very difficult scenario. You have heard me say before, the perfect storm scenario,” Pormilli said. “This tentative budget is plugging numbers in so that we can submit that and continue the process of reviewing this because we do not believe this tentative budget is anywhere (close) to where we want to be. Do not think that we are anywhere near finalizing this budget.”
She said no final decisions have been made and that the introduction was being done to meet the requirement of putting together numbers for the County Superintendent. She also noted that she would soon be testifying in Trenton in representation of the school district, calling for the state aid that was cut to Jackson to be reversed or reduced.
“This year finding out that we were anticipating a $2.5 million cut, which was part of the schedule shared with us when the S-2 legislation was put in place, so we were anticipating what they told us. However, two weeks ago we learned that cut was going to be $6.2 million cut. Two weeks before we have to strike a tentative budget,” she said.
“Last year we also received more of a cut than the schedule outlined shared with us and overall, we are projected to lose now $23 million over seven years which has gone up from $19 million based on these new recent larger cuts to state aid from last year and this year and who knows, we anticipate $806,000 next year based on that original schedule but looking at this pattern here. I’m not so sure it will only be $806,000,” the superintendent said.
“This budget is a reflection of six years of decimating budget cuts. We have been advocating against the S-2 funding formula which has cut our state aid more than $22 million. Cutting more than $23 million over this point of time you can not recoup. Expenses continue to rise and we have a 2 percent cap. That is as high as we can go to raise money from taxes to go toward our revenue,” Pormilli explained.
She said that the school district has been forced since the S-2 formula took effect, “to work in a cut budget model. Every year we are cutting, cutting and cutting. Always reducing over these six years.”
Pormilli noted that reduction in staff was handled through attrition and not replacing those positions. “We reduced operational costs. We’ve cut staff. We’ve postponed needed improvements to facilities. We seek additional revenue and we had a need to draw down our surplus funds.”
“Think of a surplus in a budget like a savings account at home. The surplus is what we generate at the end of the year to see what’s left of our budget and traditionally we had been rolling that over, year after year, however knowing that when these S-2 cuts came we would be chipping away at it,” she added.
She said that eventually when your expenses are climbing higher than your revenue, “you are going to be depleting that surplus. We have now depleted that surplus.”
A bill in Trenton right now would allow districts that lost aid to recoup 66% of it. The bill passed the Senate and will soon be up for a vote in the Assembly.
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