Monroe council cuts school tab by $515K
Insurance costs, training for teachers among items reduced
BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer

MONROE - The Township Council voted Monday to adopt a trimmed-down version of the defeated school budget, with cuts that will not impact students, according to officials.

The school board was scheduled to vote on the amended budget last night, after press time for this issue.

"I can tell you that the council president and myself did not have a pleasant time," Councilman Henry Miller said of the process. "To make those cuts just didn't seem right to me, but they had to do that."

Miller and Council President Gerald Tamburro were on the council subcommittee that worked with the Board of Education to amend the budget that was voted down in the April 15 school election.

The council reduced the $85.4 million general fund budget for 2008-09 by $515,000, Tamburro said. He said the original goal was to cut 5 percent of the $11million in the budget that was considered discretionary spending, but ultimately the cuts amounted to 4.7 percent of that spending.

Originally slated for a 7.28-cent tax rate increase, the new budget reduces that to 6.57 cents, according to school BusinessAdministrator Wayne Holliday. That translates to a school tax hike of $110 for the year for homeowners with property assessed at the town's average of $168,100, he said.

"We were pleased that none of the cuts wemade had any impact on the educational process," Tamburro said.

Reduced costs came from negotiated insurance costs, and teachers' training being brought in-house instead of paying to obtain it from an outside source, Tamburro said. Board of Education member Amy Antelis, who was elected board president last week, said that Assistant Superintendent of Schools Chris Tienken coordinated the in-house training, which will save the district a significant sum. Funding included in the budget was put in before the savings were anticipated, she said.

"If this money was saved ... it would have gone back to the taxpayers," Antelis said. Resident TomNothstein prompted Tamburro to share the information atMonday's meeting after voicing concern that the council voted on the school budget with no discussion.

"I can't believe every council member just looked at this and didn't have one question," Nothstein said.

Tamburro said council members discussed questions and concerns about the budget prior to the meeting, as they were provided with the information ahead of time. Nonetheless, Nothstein said the discussion should have occurred in an open session, where the public could have a chance to take part.

Both Miller and Mayor Richard Pucci took issue with the comments from Nothstein, who ran unsuccessfully formayor last year against Pucci. Miller said that while he disagrees with the law governing the process, the cuts had to bemade, and he did not want to debate the issue.

"You can say whether a debate is good or bad, but I personally don't call it a debate," Nothstein said. "Apublic dialogue is a good thing."

Pucci asserted that since the council is not as well versed on school budgetmatters as the Board of Education, any discussion on the budget should take place before the board. He went on to say that it would be inappropriate to discussmatters like teachers' salaries or administrators' perks, which often come up in such talks.

"That's the obligation of the board," Pucci said. "That's where the dialogue occurs. The public has the right to go out and discuss that with the board for hours if they want to."

Still, Nothstein pointed out that the intention of his querying was to glean more general information, such as how much was cut, and in which areas the cuts were being made.

Another resident said he felt the same. Since the school tab is the only budget the public is able to vote on, they should have had a chance to speak on it at the meeting, he said.

"There was no opportunity to talk about it, because the vote was taken," George Gunkelman said.