Proposed School Budget Approved; Tax Hike Averted

A proposed 2011-2012 schools budget was approved unanimously by the Board of Education Tuesday night during a special public meeting at the Wilson Primary Center. The spending plan would allocate $62.8 million, a decrease of $201,215 from the previous year. The budget moves now to the Executive County Superintendent for review. 

The proposal would require no reduction in academic, athletics, or performing-arts programs. Initially, the plan would have called for a less than 1 percent increase in the local school tax, but thanks to the recently announced and unexpected award of $597,811 in state aid, which is earmarked to offset some special education spending, that tax increase would not be necessary. Overall, the plan would cut expenditures by 0.32 percent from last year's budget. This would be the first budget decrease in more than 10 years.

Officials say the objectives for the 2011-2012 budget were to decrease costs, to assert fiscal responsibility and restraint, and to minimize the tax impact to Summit citizens while maintaining program quality. According to Board Administrator Louis J. Pepe, who formulated the spending plan alongside Superintendent Dr. Nathan N. Parker, they succeeded.

"We're in a very good position thanks to fiscal planning and prudent decisions, and to hard choices made in prior year budgets as well as in the current budget," Pepe said.

"This is about as good as it possibly can get," Parker agreed.

Areas receiving the biggest increases within the budget are pension and health benefit costs (up 4.95 percent) and staff training (up 71.49 percent). Officials justify the increases as being part of the cost of improving teacher performance and ensuring that high standards are met and maintained. 

The controversy over Gov. Chris Christie's proposed salary cap for superintendent's has led to the resignation of Chatham's superintendent Jim O'Neil and the Parsippany Board of Education to attempt to defy the cap, putting its state school funding at risk. Parker's $228,124 contract wasn January however it has yet to be approved by the county superintendent.

Lyness said he, Parker, and the board are comfortable with seeing how things develop over the next few months. In the meantime, he says the previous contract does not expire until June 2012, which makes the issue of the superintendent salary cap "not a pressing matter."

Though Parker believes the restriction will likely not affect him at all–"I'm closer to the end of my career rather than to the beginning"–the superintendent says he still has concerns about limiting salaries.

"I'm more concerned about the younger people in the field. How do we incentivize the talented principals and people in my cabinet who might have the potential to become superintendent? Why would they take the risk?" he said, noting the many years of low-paying work and expensive education required to attain the qualifications the position requires. "Frankly, I don't believe the caps are truly reflective of the skill set required to run a complex school system."

He also pointed out that it while it costs the same to educate a superintendent as it does to educate someone getting a Masters of Business Administration, an MBA recipient working in business or on Wall Street has the potential of earning four or five times what a school superintendent makes.

President Jack Lyness, who testified against the salary caps, echoed Parker's sentiments.

"A lot of the things I was afraid of are already happening. Retirements are twice what they normally would be," he said. "I'm afraid that we are not going to have quality superintendents in all districts. Our superintendent is well along in his career, and I'm worried about replacing him."

The salary cap for a district Summit's size would be $175,000.

Public input on the Summit schools budget has been accepted during public workshop meetings held since January. There will be an additional opportunity for public comment at the March 10 Board of School Estimate meeting and at a public hearing scheduled for March 29.

When the floor was opened to public comment, Speak Up Summit President Melanie Wilson praised the budget and commended the board for its work. Ed Vant of the Summit Taxpayers Association stated that he was "happy with the numbers" presented by the board, but noted his disappointment that the meeting was scheduled at the same time as the Lyness replied that he wasn't aware that there would be a conflict when the BOE meeting was scheduled.

Proposed 2011-2012 Summit Public Schools Budget

EXPENDITURES

REVENUES