School Officials React to Drastic Cuts in State Aid

The State Department of Education announced Wednesday afternoon the Caldwell-West Caldwell and North Caldwell school districts will lose all state aid, while the West Essex Regional School District will be cut by nearly 90 percent next year.

According to the Department of Education's Web site, Caldwell-West Caldwell schools will lose all $1,567,292 of state aid in 2010-11. North Caldwell will also face a 100 percent cut, losing $246,659. There are a total of 59 New Jersey districts that will lose all state aid for 2010-11.

"I think it's going to be very painful cuts," Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Education President Joseph McCann said.  "I don't think there's going to be a single person who doesn't feel it."

West Essex schools will face an 89.4 percent cutback in aid from $1,684,531 to $178,991—a reduction of $1.5 million.

"The only way to find $1.5 million is through staff cuts," said West Essex Board of Education President Joyce Candido, who said 85 percent of the district's budget goes toward salaries and benefits.

"The last thing I'd like to see affected are the classrooms," she added.

Candido said the district will need to examine whether to cut certain clubs and programs.

"We have to find the money somewhere," she said. "We are pretty lean to begin with."

But Candido also said she understands reductions are necessary.

"New Jersey has been living beyond its means for many years and it's time to get back to reality," Candido said.

The West Essex Board of Education's next meeting will be Monday after this week's meeting was postponed due to flooding in the area.

The Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Education plans to present a tentative budget at a special meeting Monday night before a public hearing will be held on Tuesday, March 30.

"Districts are going to have to go back and take a really strong look at where they can cut," Caldwell Mayor Susan Gartland said. "I think it's really unfortunate for the residents of the Caldwells."

State Education Commissioner Bret Schundler defended the increased cuts in a conference call late Wednesday afternoon. He said the state as a whole would not be seeing large cuts in the change of the formula from 15 percent to five percent. He avoided discussing individual districts and the cuts, stressing the overall aid figure.

"Districts had the understanding that it would be 15 percent and it is a number that is less than that," Schundler said.

Schundler placed the blame at the state aid reductions for school districts at the feet of previous Democratic administrations and the reduction of $1 billion in federal stimulus aid from President Barack Obama. The federal aid was from last year's stimulus package and used partially for state aid payments. The federal aid was meant as a one time payment to states.

Schundler defended the cuts by saying that the state legislature can avert layoffs at the school district level by implementing Gov. Chris Christie's package of public employee reforms in a quick time frame. The package includes changing the pension and health benefits packages for teachers, including requiring co-pays and larger payments for pensions.

The co-pays will apply to school personnel who retire after the changes are made, but not to those who leave their jobs before the proposals are enacted.

Schundler said this will allow for more quick retirements from teachers who do not want to pay part of their health insurance in retirement. He said quick enactment, which is not considered likely, will help stem the expected layoffs in school districts statewide.

"That will dramactically reduce the number of personnel reductions that would be achieved through a layoff," he said. "These reforms will reduce costs to the districts and create a need for early retirements."

In addition, Christie has proposed a constitutional amendment requiring a two and a half percent cap on property tax payments. These amendment could not become law until the end of the year at the earliest.

Schundler, a former Jersey City mayor, said the cuts will exclude a large aid reduction for charter schools. A charter school advocate dating back to his mayoralty in the 1990s, Schundler said the small charter school aid reduction is in line with state laws regarding aid to the specialized schools that operate outside the school districts with public assistance.

In addition, Schundler noted the charter schools largely service urban communities including Newark, Camden and Jersey City, where he believes they provide greater educational opportunities for students. During a campaign stop last year at Westfield High School, Christie proposed a greater empathsis on urban education, including working with charter schools.

Schundler believes that school districts can accomplish the cuts by the March 30 deadline for school budgets to be submitted for voter approval. He said he has instructed county superintendents to throughly review each school district budget and be prepared to make line item vetos in order to make further reductions before the budgets go to the voters on April 20. State law allows county superintendents to make these vetos.

Schundler defended the new state aid numbers, saying that Christie did not cut the overall figure, but describing the cuts as coming from the loss in the federal stimulus aid. He said this shows a commitment to education by the governor, who has been called anti-teacher by union officials.

"What this highlights is the priority the Christie administration has put on school aid," Schundler said. "That says a lot about the governor's commitment to education."

John Celock and Noah Cohen contributed to this story.