Note: The boldface/italicized text is
additional information beyond what was published in the Westfield Leader
The final exam for School Board members is the yearly vote on the budget. After several months of intense preparation, cram sessions with the District’s administrators, and tax rate calculations that make Everyday Math look easy, the Board will receive their grade on April 19th. To help you understand the process I’ve got the answers to some frequently asked questions below.
Does anyone really understand the School Budget as it appears in the Leader’s “ Public Notice” section?
It’s rumored that Bob Berman, the District’s Business Administrator, knows it by heart. However, the Board of Education members typically use a “Program Budget”, which breaks down the costs into categories much easier to understand. You’ll be seeing that in presentations and on Channel 36.
The program budget may be on the budget area of the westfieldnj.com web
site – please visit
http://westfieldnj.com/schoolbudget/
How much will my taxes increase?
Well, that depends on your assessment – for the average
If you’re wondering how an “18 cents” increase that is mentioned in a
lot of budget-talk, it refers to the increase in the tax rate applied to your
house, i.e. $.18 per $100 of assessed value; so if you multiply .0018
(.18/100) by 180,000 you get $324. The
budget can only increase in event “cent” amounts and each cent raises approximately $184,000
to fund the schools (tax levy budget of 68,130,181/rate of 369 cents).
Can’t Board save some money somewhere?
Yes, this year the Board has reduced spending by consolidating the technology department, by negotiating a “managed care” health plan option for most of teachers, and by contracting for lower utility costs, to name a few areas. The Board is also planning to teach more Special Education classes within the district, reducing out of district costs that can reach $100,000 per child.
Special education is almost always the wildcard of the budget; you do
not know how many children will be requiring special services, nor does the
district know exactly what the tuition rates will be. The state sets those
rates at the end of the school year, rather than the beginning. The state can
reimburse districts for amounts spent per-child about $40,000, but
Isn’t the State helping out with some funds?
Yes, to the tune of about 10% of
The state has passed a variety of laws that attempt to restrict how a
school district can spend money, while doing little to fund districts unless
required to by law (the mainly urban “Abbott” districts) .
The latest law is S1701, passed last year as an attempt to do tax relief for
voters by limiting the amount in each districts “rainy-day” fund (fund balance)
by returning an
excess amount to the taxpayers.
The state figures that each
district should only keep 2% as a contingency; in
What happens if the budget is not passed?
Then the town council gets to decide what amount or line items are cut or reduced from budget. The cuts can be made without considering the Board of Education’s priorities or strategic plan. The risk of a budget not passing is approaching a reality because even though more people move into town for our great schools, fewer are turning out to vote for the budget that supports the schools, while the number voting against the budget stays fairly constant.
When the town council gets the budget, they specify amounts to be cut from any line items they choose, resulting in a total amount to be cut. The Board of Education then can determine what is actually cut, which does not have to match with what the Town Council decides.
Do you have any ideas?
Glad you asked! If elected, I, Gary McCready, would use my
years of experience personally managing millions in technology budgets to help
craft a budget that will produce the best educational value for