CWC Cuts 25 Special Ed Aides, Teachers, Coaches

The Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Education administration spent months assembling numerous budgets to fit any possible scenario Gov. Chris Christie's proposal would create.

But with the unexpected elimination of state aid, all of those scenarios were shredded as well.

According to Superintendent Daniel Gerardi, more than $2 million in cutbacks needed to be made since January from the district's original budget plan.

Among the most significant reductions made over the weekend that were announced at Monday night's special meeting are the elimination of 25 special education aides, nine non-athletic extra-curricular activities, six high school athletic coaching positions, three high school teachers, two resource room teachers along with one elementary school teacher, a custodian, a maintenance worker and a secretary.

"In the scenarios that we had put together over the last couple of months, we thought we were going to be adding more money back into the budget because what we thought was the worst-case scenario was something that didn't even come close to what we found out on Wednesday afternoon," said Ronald Skopak, the district's business administrator and board secretary.

"To say it was a shock and our jaws dropped would be taking it lightly. I think this is kind of a historic moment. What you have in front of you are budget numbers  that for the first time show a budget appropriation that is actually less than the previous year." 

The tentative budget will be submitted this week for the county superintendent's approval and a public hearing will be held at Harrison School on Tuesday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m., before the budget will be voted on during the school elections on April 20.

Reduced by nearly $350,000, the district's total budget for 2010-11 will be $39,734,764 compared to $40,083,278 this academic year. 

A tax levy of $36,921,252—a 3.71 percent hike—comprises nearly 93 percent of the budget. However, the board will again transfer $450,000 to reduce the levy, which remains under the 4 percent cap.

"The board on an annual basis has always returned back to the tax payers from free balance to reduce tax levy," Skopak said. "The board again is going to reduce next year's tax levy by $450,000, which maintains the amount of tax levy."

The district's state aid, which accounted for 5.3 percent of this year's budget, will only amount to $542,785 or 1.4 percent of the 2010-11 budget. While , it's believed extraordinary aid—approximately $430,000—will be maintained as well as about a $112,000 allocation to service non-public school students, Skopak said.

Federal aid was also reduced from $449,415 to $445,897 as was miscellaneous revenue—invested funds—that dropped from $180,367 to $118,291 due to low interest rates, according to Skopak.

"Our revenue has been reduced. If you can't raise revenue in other places besides tax levy and you're capped there, then the only other choice we had was to go back in and reduce appropriations," Skopak said.

"As far as my memory that goes back to the '70s, we've never seen a reduction in budget appropriations. This is the first time that we've seen almost nine-tenths of a percent lost of budget appropriations."

As a result, the board spent Saturday cutting back all areas of the budget.

According to Gerardi, funds for staff development were "reduced dramatically." While the district will provide teachers with time to attend workshops, it will no longer cover registration costs for those events. There will also be a reduction to staff development within the district with fewer consultants brought in, Gerardi said.

An informal request has also been made to the teachers union to open contract negotiations with a formal request planned for Tuesday, according to Gerardi, who said there are two years remaining under the current contract.

In addition, with the exception of bond referendum projects like the Lincoln School auditorium, all construction projects have been put off, Gerardi said. 

"Many of the projects we have proposed have all virtually been cut from the budget," he said. "Our operation and maintenance budget will basically be for essential items, routine repairs and things of that nature—projects that have to be done and for some emergencies."

While the district was able to purchase some materials for next year with its current budget, there will be a reduction for textbooks and other supply items in 2010-11, Gerardi said.

"All of these items, while they amount to a lot of money, really do not make as much difference as personnel cuts," he said. "It's really when you get to personnel and people that you start reducing the budget by large amounts."

A total of six retiring faculty members alleviated some of the strain, Gerardi said. In addition to replacing five of those teachers with lower-salaried ones next year, the district plans to eliminate the full-time vice principal position at Grover Cleveland Middle School.

James Bigsby, the middle school's vice principal who has been with the district for about seven years, will become principal of Lincoln School following the retirement of Principal C.R. Williams, according to Gerardi.

Music Supervisor Scott Chamberlain will continue his duties part-time, while also serving as the middle school vice principal on a part-time basis, Gerardi said.

The district also plans to eliminate nearly 30 non-certified positions. In addition to a custodian, maintenance worker and a secretary, there will be a reduction of 25 special education aides, Gerardi said.

With the total number of part-time aides reduced from 129 to 104, Gerardi said there will be less 1-on-1 assistance but no more than a two- or three-to-one ratio.

"There are always risks with special ed, because you don't know if a family moves in with an out-of-district student with needs," Gerardi said. "We have an opening for one student, but it's certainly possible that we have three or four students come in next year who need that service.

"We're going on the information we have right now, making some projections but there are certainly some risks that are there. We will certainly have less flexibility than in prior years because of the nature of next year's budget."

According to Gerardi, there will be no reduction in course offerings and class sizes should not exceed 25 students.

However, three James Caldwell High School teachers will be eliminated as well as a resource room teacher in the high school and one in the middle school. According to Gerardi, both the middle and high schools were able to condense into five sections to accommodate the cutbacks to resource room teachers.

One elementary school teacher will also be terminated with Washington School's current four sections of fourth-graders condensed into three sections of fifth-graders next year, Gerardi said.

"I will make public the exact cutbacks next week," Gerardi said. "Because of the time restraints that we had in putting the budget together, we basically made these decisions over this weekend. We have not had the opportunity to let the people who are affected know. We will make that information public next week."

The board also presented Caldwell High administrators a funding allocation for athletics that will result in cutbacks to about six coaches, Gerardi said.

In addition, the middle and high school administrations have been given an amount of funding for non-athletic, extra-curricular activities that will result in an approximate reduction of nine programs between the two schools, Gerardi said.

According to Gerardi, there will be no reduction to the two full-time guidance counselors, but there will be cutbacks to The Bridge counselors at the elementary, middle and high schools.

"Obviously, there were a lot of other reductions in supply and travel—virtually every line in the budget was reduced to get to this level," Gerardi said. "But these were the most major reductions that have the biggest impact on the district."

Board of Education President Joseph McCann said it was a difficult process, but one shared by many surrounding communities.

"It's certainly not a pretty picture. The only thing I can say is if you look at the districts around us—Verona, Livingston—we're all kind of in the same boat," he said of the reductions to state aid. "We all lost everything or some lost about 90 percent of their state aid. We're all in the same boat. It's not a great place to be, but it is what it is. Please recognize it was a very difficult budget to put together and it was certainly a group effort."

It's an effort that may become even more strenuous next year, Skopak said.

"We've been through this budget backwards and forwards," he said. "We didn't want to cut programs. That was our main goal.

"To cover around the edges so to speak and reduce this way, my concern is not with next year's budget. My concern is future budgets with our district. [The governor] is pushing a two-and-a-half percent cap. If that happens, then in 2011-12 that will be a monster budget to put together. Looking to the future is where my fear is."