Proposed Budget a Hit With Board of Ed, General Public

Despite a driving rain, whipping winds and flooding around Hoboken, about 35 to 40 people turned out Tuesday evening for a public hearing on the $57,882,147 budget proposed to fund the upcoming school year. By and large, members of the public who spoke expressed support—some enthusiastic—for the budget and the Board of Education voted 6-1 to approve it for a public vote to be held on April 20.

In his opening remarks, Interim Superintendent Peter Carter invoked the cultural themes of March Madness and the Mad Hatter as symbols of the unexpected challenges his staff and the Board have faced in the first part of 2010. Carter was mainly referring to Gov. Chris Christie's proposed cuts in state aid for education. This leaves Hoboken with a roughly $2.4 million reduction in state funding for next year. Despite having less to work with, Carter said, the Board of Education's proposed budget avoids staff cuts and any negative impact on Hoboken's public school students.

"We come to you this evening with … a spending plan of the children, by the children and for the children," Carter pronounced before introducing Interim School Business Administrator Robert Davis, whom he hailed as the "grandfather of these children and the father of the 2010-2011 Hoboken budget."

Davis then enlightened attendees on the finer points of budget planning with a prepared FAQ that outlined some specific numbers and explanations of how those numbers were reached. At just under $58 million, the proposed budget represents a $4.1 million, or seven percent, decrease from the 2009-2010 budget. At $36,761,743, the proposed local tax levy shaves $3,053, or less than one percent, off of the current levy.

According to Davis, the proposed budget will reduce expenditures by approximately $2 million and total spending by just over $4 million without cutting school programs or firing any staff.

This was achieved, he said, through the appropriation of all but about $100,000 in surplus funds, phasing out fourteen positions mainly by retirements, eliminating the deficit in food service operations, and reducing the purchase of supplies, among other things.

Davis said nearby school districts are dealing with the cuts in state aid by increasing the tax levy or charging parents for after-school programs and sports. He described keeping school taxes in Hoboken from increasing as "a Herculean task" in the face of steep cuts in state aid.

A contingent of teachers was on hand and several who spoke praised the superintendent and the board for not cutting staff and programs. "I'd like to thank the Board of Education along with Mr. Carter and his team for a budget that has no teacher lay-offs or program cuts and no increase in the public tax bill," said Tara Donnelly, a teacher at Calabro Primary School and a 15-year Hoboken resident.

Beth Tomlinson, a kindergarten teacher at the Brandt School, echoed Donnelly's sentiment and lauded the collective effort of the BoE and the superintendent's office in economically "trying times" and for keeping "the focus on the students."

Denise Donnelly, a 28-year veteran and faculty member at Wallace Primary School, said the budget reflected that the school board values its teachers. Several residents, including Kids First candidate Jean Marie Mitchell, teachers' union president Gary Enrico, and more teachers followed offering the Board and Carter plaudits for a job well done, yet not everyone overflowed with appreciation.

When the meeting was opened to discussion among the board members, long-term member James Farina said, "It's an honest budget and the people of Hoboken should be proud of the savings, even though it's not that much."

Farina urged the public to vote for the budget and warned that if the public doesn't vote in favor of the budget, the decision of whether or not to adopt it will become the responsibility of the city council.

Maureen Sullivan, the only dissenting vote (Frances Rhodes-Kearns and Ruth McAllister were absent), expressed concerns that the budget is bloated. She said both Hoboken and Secaucus school districts have around 2,000 students enrolled, but that Secaucus's budget this year is a little more than half of Hoboken's. She added that introducing the laptop program and deploying a one-year textbook-leasing program are reasons for concern.

"I don't think we should be spending $225,000 of our stimulus money on a new pilot program," she said in reference to the laptop program. Moreover, she argued that the budget will end the school district's participation in the International Baccalaureate Program (IBP).

At the special budget workshop last week, Sullivan voted to send the proposed budget to a public hearing, but, after the hearing adjourned, she said she would've voted against sending it to the public hearing had she known it would have discontinued participation in the IBP. She said her favorable vote was due to the time constraints the Board of Education and the superintendent's office were under and that, after having researched the textbook-leasing program, she decided it wasn't prudent.

Mainly, though, her opposition has to do with the size of the  budget. "I think we should be cutting our taxes," Sullivan said. "We have a $62 million budget. Secaucus, with the same number of kids, has a $35 million budget. How do they do it? I would love to know what they do."