Monday's Board of Education Meeting Outlines District's Early Budget Planning

During its Monday, Jan. 24 meeting, Collingswood Public School District Board of Education discussed early budget planning for the 2011-12 school year.

A segment of this presentation, titled "What We Know," outlined what items the district is certain of—as they wait for official 2011-12 state aid figures to be released.

By law, the board must adhere to a maximum 2-percent cap, or tax increase—a new boundary set by the state this year.

That tax increase, said board members, would generate $277,310.

And District Superintendent Scott A. Oswald expressed his frustration over the 2-percent cap.

"Despite being limited to a 2-percent cap—which also applies to the municipality and county, but not the state government—we still must put our budget to a vote," said Oswald. "The time, money and resources wasted on that process is ridiculous. I pay taxes in New Jersey. I understand that taxes are high.

"But sending the message that your local school boards cannot be trusted to budget wisely—but all the politicians in Trenton can—seems a bit backwards to me," said Oswald.

And the district must, as Oswald mentioned, put its budget to vote. Taxpayers will vote on the proposed school budget Wednesday, April 27, 2011, from 2 to 9 p.m., said Oswald—during the district's spring recess. 

Oswald himself is in his fourth year as Collingswood Public School District's superintendent.

During his time with the district, three budgets have been proposed and voted on. Of the three budgets presented in Oswald's reign, all three have passed.

"Last year, (the budget) passed by the largest majority we've had in years—over 300 votes," said Oswald earlier in the current school year. "And the year before, we passed by 23 votes. The last time (Collingswood's Public School District budget) did not pass was before my time here."

Whether the 2011-12 budget passes remains to be seen.

But at Monday night's meeting, the board expressed concern over what members don't yet know about this year's impending school budget process.

By this time last school year, the board had received its fated state aid cut—the district was cut $1.6 million in school year 2010-11. And school officials have currently heard nothing from the Department of Education thus far.

And with all the question marks still floating around the 2011-12 budget, all the district can do is make educated guesses. 

The board outlined goals they'll be reaching for during the process, including making a review of programs—both curricular and co-curricular—to ensure that staff are placed in positions that best-maximize students' engagement and success.

Board members will also be reviewing districtwide operations, in hopes of finding ways to limit any tax hikes and to avoid spending tax dollars.

The district made it clear they'll continue to look for shared service opportunities—so that district operations are maintained, and so the taxpayer sees some relief.

The board listed some things that they're certain about in the 2011-12 budget. Included were: every current district position has been funded, capital improvements have already been funded (with one-time funds from previous, nonrecurring tuition adjustments), and funding for technology and literary incentives. The district also said it has tried to re-introduce some ninth-grade athletics, and its tried adding one additional teacher position to decrease class size.

As for potential state aid reductions? The district had one major bullet point—positions and programs would suffer.

The next budget discussion will occur at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28, at Zane-North Elementary School. The district's official Budget Hearing is set for Monday, March 28, also at 7:30 p.m. at Zane-North.

Taxpayers and parents are invited to these board of education meetings, where they may ask questions or voice any concerns about the 2011-12 budget.

But until the future brings more certainties, Superintendent Oswald said January's preliminary budget process was much like building an airplane in the air.

"The process is frustrating—we enter every budget season blind as to what we may expect in state funding," said Oswald. "We build many preliminary budgets and develop cut lists for items that may have to be reduced, but we will not hear about state funding until the end of February—two days after the governor's budget address.

"At this point, the only information we've received about 2011-2012 funding is one short paragraph from an asset commissioner, indicating we should prepare for possible reductions," said Oswald. "We have no idea what type of reduction, if any.

"So we go through the motions of preparing our budget based on flat funding, and then develop other scenarios for certain percentage reductions in state aid," he said. "If we do see a reduction, we have a very short time frame to make cuts and submit a proposed budget to Trenton. It's very time consuming and frustrating."