UPDATED: Mayor & Council will hold Special Meeting at 5:30 PM on May 13, to discuss defeated School Board Budget
April 28, 2009 by admin
Filed under Archived Notices
The Mayor & Council will meet at the Belmar Municpal Building Councilroom, at 601 Main Street, at 5:30 p.m., prior to their regularly scheduled Agenda Session to discuss the defeated school budget and ask questions of School representatives. Members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on school budget during this meeting. The Mayor & Council must adopt a resolution tonight at their regular meeting on May 13, setting forth any budget cuts they to decide make. By law, the Board of Education has the latitude to make cuts in line items other than those designated by the Mayor & Council.
The School budget is before the Mayor & Council because on Tuesday, April 21, Belmar voters soundly defeated the Belmar School District’s proposed budget. The budget had proposed a tax levy of $7,214,788, which represents an increase of $275,909, or 3.35% over last year’s levy. Of the total $275,909 amount, $24,655 was for debt service the Board is obligated to pay. The measure was defeated by a vote of 364 to 258, a nearly 3-2 margin.
Three seats on the Board of Education were up, but none were contested. Incumbents Richard Brand, Michael Schappert and Joanne Gray all ran unopposed. Interestingly, the Richard Brand, the high vote-getter received 403 votes, which was far less than the 622 votes cast on the budget. The means that a large number of voters came out for the sole purpose of voting on — and apparently against — the budget.
Under State law, the School District’s budget is now in the Mayor & Council’s court. Loretta Hill, the School Board Secretary, has already been in contact with Borough Administrator Robbin Kirk to provide the required budget documents, including the School Board’s proposed line-item budget, most recent annual audit, employee salary schedules, staffing and enrollment information and projections, and other information prescribed by N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-9.7. This information will be reviewed by Mayor Pringle, Borough Administrator Kirk and by Councilmembers Matthew Doherty and Richard J. Wright, who comprise the Borough Council Finance Committee. Once Borough representatives have had an opportunity to review and analyze this information, one or more working meetings will be scheduled between representatives of the Borough of Belmar and the Board of Education to discuss the school’s finances, get answers to questions that are raised by the materials provided, and attempt to identify areas where prudent cuts can be made.
The Borough Council will have already begun exploring what cost-cutting measures were already anticipated in the defeated budget. These include a reduced pay rates for substitute teachers, which are anticipated to save $11,000. A Shared Service Agreement with Avon to provide Child Study Team services next school year, which would generate $32,000 in additional revenue. Consolidating Preschool Handicap, which will eliminate one-half of a pre-K teacher and one-half of pre-K aide, saving $30,000. The school also plans to consolidate the 3rd grade into into two sections due to reduced class size, and moving that teacher to Kindergarten, where a fourth section is required due to State regulations limiting kindergarten class-sizes to 21 students. Any cuts proposed by the Mayor & Council will have to be in addition to these cost-cutting measures, which are already anticipated in the School Board’s budget calculations.
By law, the Mayor & Council are not permitted to reduce the levy below $6,980,770, which is the “required local share” pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-5. This means that $234,018 is the maximum amount the Mayor & Council could conceivably cut from the defeated budget’s proposed $7,214,788 levy.
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