Board will talk about budget cuts
Jackson school officials will meet on May 31 to pare spending plan
BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer

JACKSON — The Board of Education will meet at 7:30 p.m. May 31 in the Fine Arts Center at Jackson Memorial High School and is expected to take action on the $2.9 million cut to its 2005-06 budget that has been unanimously recommended by the Township Committee.

In April, voters defeated the board’s proposed tax levy of $56.8 million to support a $121 million budget for the coming school year.

Last week, the committee voted to reduce the tax levy to $53.9 million upon the recommendations of Frank Marlow, a former school administrator who reviewed the spending plan.

The budget proposed by the board included an increase in the school tax rate of 12.55 cents per $100 of assessed property value. The reductions recommended by the committee will trim that increase by 5.5 cents, for a net tax increase of 7.04 cents. The school tax rate will rise from $2.02 to slightly more than $2.09 per $100 of assessed valuation.

That means the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 will pay $4,180 in school taxes in 2005-06, up from $4,040 in 2004-05. The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 will pay $6,270 in school taxes in 2005-06, up from $6,060 in 2004-05. The owner of a home assessed at $400,000 will pay $8,360 in school taxes in 2005-06, up from $8,080 in 2004-05.

Committeeman Sean Giblin said the reductions were not expected to impact ongoing negotiations with the Jackson Education Association (JEA), which represents teachers and affiliated personnel. The union’s contract will expire on June 30.

Committeeman Mark Seda said every effort was made to reach an agreement on the cuts with the school board.

“The school board was not happy with the reductions,” Seda said. “Unfortunately, in that process some [people] are not going to be happy.”

Giblin said the board had budgeted a 4.5 percent increase for a new contract with the JEA, but board President Linda Lackay said on May 20 that 4 percent had been planned as a maximum.

“I don’t want to sit here and justify their budget,” said Giblin. “My job is to sit here and propose areas of savings.”

Township Administrator Andrew J. Salerno said the board has the right to appeal the cuts to the state commissioner of education, but said he felt comfortable it would not.

Lackay said later that even if the district appealed the cuts and won a favorable decision, the money would not be put back into the budget until as late as November.

She explained the board’s original figures.

“In a growing township, there’s a lot of estimating that goes on when you’re putting together the budget,” said Lackay. “[Now] we have to decide where we have to make these cuts.”