Budget axes fall on N.J. school districts
Bill Conley was frustrated.
Standing amid more than 100 people in the Cinnaminson Middle School cafeteria this week, the township resident questioned a school district budget proposal that calls for laying off 18 teachers and hiking taxes $383 for the average homeowner.
"Why is it always the teachers" who make the sacrifices, and not administrators earning three times as much, he asked Tuesday night.
"Some people might say, 'It's only $380 in taxes,' " said Conley, who has two children in the district. "I don't have any more to give."
Such scenes are playing out in similar meetings across the region this week, as school officials scramble to finalize their budgets by Saturday's deadline. At the hearings, often before overflow crowds, school boards are delivering the final tally of layoffs and eliminated programs, and making their cases for voters to approve the budgets on April 20.
The cost savings are largely to compensate for Gov. Christie's proposed $819 million reduction in aid to districts in the 2010-11 state budget. As they struggle to compensate for the unexpectedly deep cuts, many school officials have complained that Trenton has passed the burden to local taxpayers.
One-third of the districts in Burlington, Gloucester and Camden Counties have received permission to seek property-tax increases that exceed the state-mandated 4 percent cap, according to local officials.
Nearly all of the state's districts expect to lay off staff, and two-thirds will suspend some extracurricular activities, according to a survey by the New Jersey School Boards Association. Eighty-three percent of districts said the aid
Standing amid more than 100 people in the Cinnaminson Middle School cafeteria this week, the township resident questioned a school district budget proposal that calls for laying off 18 teachers and hiking taxes $383 for the average homeowner.
"Why is it always the teachers" who make the sacrifices, and not administrators earning three times as much, he asked Tuesday night.
"Some people might say, 'It's only $380 in taxes,' " said Conley, who has two children in the district. "I don't have any more to give."
Such scenes are playing out in similar meetings across the region this week, as school officials scramble to finalize their budgets by Saturday's deadline. At the hearings, often before overflow crowds, school boards are delivering the final tally of layoffs and eliminated programs, and making their cases for voters to approve the budgets on April 20.
The cost savings are largely to compensate for Gov. Christie's proposed $819 million reduction in aid to districts in the 2010-11 state budget. As they struggle to compensate for the unexpectedly deep cuts, many school officials have complained that Trenton has passed the burden to local taxpayers.
One-third of the districts in Burlington, Gloucester and Camden Counties have received permission to seek property-tax increases that exceed the state-mandated 4 percent cap, according to local officials.
Nearly all of the state's districts expect to lay off staff, and two-thirds will suspend some extracurricular activities, according to a survey by the New Jersey School Boards Association. Eighty-three percent of districts said the aid