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Politics & Government

Berkeley Heights BOE Adopts Budget After Last-Minute Alterations

Concerned public will vote on budget on Wednesday, April 27.

Amid more cuts in staff and personnel, the Berkeley Heights Board of Education made a few last-minute alterations to its 2011-12 budget proposal at its regular meeting and public hearing at Columbia Middle School on Thursday, March 24.

The budget proposal was then adopted by the Board of Education, leaving the final ruling up to public vote on Wednesday, April 27.

Alterations to the budget proposed and finalized at Thursday night’s meeting included the board accounting for the retirements that are occurring district-wide. Teacher and other staff retirements commonly mean that a district will not need to pay replacements as much in salary as they were paying their predecessors before they retired, as people brought in to fill the vacated positions are often younger and not as well-established. Overall, the district could see a savings of anywhere between $20,000 and $35,000 due to retirements on a case-by-case basis.

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“Typically, people retiring are at the top of the guide,” said District Superintendent Judith Rattner. “When we look to replace teachers, we credit them for their years of experience, but (the replacement) likely is not someone who’s going to be placed at top of the guide (in terms of salary).”

This causes the tax levy increase for homeowners brought on by the 2011-12 school year budget to decrease from 1.35% to 0.998%. After the board’s debt service decrease of $50,211 is factored into the numbers, the tax levy increase sits at about 0.8% following the alterations. When all is said and done, this amounts to a $375 increase in taxes to the average household for the following school year, down from the original $386 increase taxpayers were faced with before retirements were factored into the budget.

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“That demonstrates that we’re trying to be sensitive to what’s out there,” said Board of Education Vice President John Sincaglia.

The ability to arrive well-beneath the 2% cap, however, was the product of the Board of Education having to make some difficult decisions in terms of what cuts they were going to make heading into next school year.

“There are things we are not doing next year that are worthwhile,” said Sincaglia. “We would like to do them, but we made some tough choices. “

“I’m hoping that as we go forward, things can get better because there will be some conditions we won’t have to deal with in the future,” continued Sincaglia. “This is where we are now.”

The proposed budget reflects cuts including the reduction of 17 staff positions, the elimination of middle school sports, reductions in the amount of elective, music and foreign language courses offered at Governor Livingston and the elimination of courtesy bussing. 

Generally speaking, the public was divided and posed many different concerns to the board on Thursday night. Some residents were accepting of the notion that the Board of Education was forced to make cuts in order to stay below the 2% cap.

“I’m not happy about the cuts either, but I understand we have no choice,” said Kendra Newman, a Berkeley Heights resident who went through the Berkeley Heights school system, and now has children attending Berkeley Heights public schools.

Others, concerned about rising taxes, didn’t believe that the board had done enough, and that more cuts could have been included into the 2011-12 budget.

“I appreciate effort to try to knock down budget a little bit, but I’m still disappointed in this budget," said Carol Metulo, another township resident. “We’re only increasing the tax levy by a couple percentages a year, but over time, it’s increased significantly more (than) the county and the town (increases)."

Conversely, there were others that were concerned that the board was making too many cuts without calculating risk factors.

“I remain concerned that we’ve dropped the budget beyond bare bones,” said resident Jess Tremanski. “Reducing it yet further in the face of continuing unknowns remains a bit of a concern to me.”

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