What Happens Next? School Budget Defeat, Part 1

Each April, roughly one quarter of Bernards' residents file to the polls to vote on the annual school tax levy. The levy, upwards of $70 million dollars each of the past two years, is raised from property taxes in Bernards and used to pay for the vast majority of school costs in the district.

This year, by a margin of 416 votes, the Board of Education $86.6 million budget, including $73.7 million raised in taxes, was defeated. It was the second time the budget was rejected in the past 10 years – the others in 2002 and 2005.

The defeat signifies many things to many people. Township Committeeperson Mary Pavlini said, "We've gotten hundreds of emails, and everybody has a different opinion as to why it went down." The only certainty is that cuts will be made.

The Defeated Budget Process

The process works as follows. The Board of Education must submit comprehensive documentation to the Township Committee regarding their budget, costs, salary information and other line-item expenses and rationales. The Township Committee must then review the submitted material, meet with school officials, hear public testimony and decide on a new general operating budget figure for the 2010 school year by May 19. The committee will recommend specific items in the budget to be cut, but the Board of Education has the final authority to decide what stays and what goes, as long as the cuts fit the new budget figure submitted by the township.

According to Mayor Scott Spitzer, the Township Committee has already received the budget documentation from the district, and had an initial meeting via teleconference with school officials last Friday. The township formed a subcommittee consisting of Pavlini, Township Committeeperson Carolyn Gaziano and Township Administrator Bruce McArthur to handle the talks. Board of Education members Susan Carlsson, Bill Koch, Bernards Superintendent Valerie Goger and School Budget Administrator Nick Markarian provided information on behalf of the schools.

Township Attorney John Belardo took the time to explain some of the more confusing aspects of the defeated budget process to the 50 or 60 members of the public in attendance at Tuesday's Township Committee meeting, noting that while the board will be looking for real, line-by-line reductions to suggest for the new budget figure, they have limited authority to specify cuts.

"It's important to emphasize that while the committee can recommend certain line items to reduce, the committee cannot mandate those items. It is up to the Board of Education to decide whether to accept those items or reduce other areas of the budget," Belardo said.

The Appeals Process

Belardo also added that based on what he believes is a limited appeals process, the committee's budget decisions will be final. "Essentially whatever this committee does is going to be the final word in terms of the number of reductions," he said. "Unless cuts were so dramatic as to go below a 'thorough and sufficient' education, there is very little possibility of the reversing the number on appeal. I think the [state education] commissioner said, in fact, last year there were only two such reversals out of all the budget defeats."

The Timeline for Decisions

While the Township Committee officially has until May 19 to decide on the new budget figure, the mayor said that the final consideration and vote will take place at the Monday, May 10 Township Committee meeting.

The committee will hear a second round of public comments and have a board discussion before making the decision, according to Spitzer. And the mayor also said he expects the subcommittee to have at least one more meeting with school officials on the budget before that time.

Due to the complexity of the budget review, McArthur said that he expects that the scale of the budget cuts will not be known until the Township Committee discussion on May 10.

This is the first in a four-part series exploring the events surrounding the defeat of the school budget at the polls on April 20. The decisions of the township committee and Board of Education will set the school property tax levy for township residents and also determine the number of cuts that will be needed to create a balanced school budget. Click here to read the second, third and fourth parts of the series.