Note: Covering the April school budget elections is a staple of New Jersey newspaper reporting. But what do these votes mean? For this article I surveyed more than 100 school districts in South Jersey to get a look at the effect of budget cuts on schools and students.

 

When Waterford's elementary students leave home to begin the new school year, they will board buses with drivers they've never seen. At school, they will learn Spanish from audiotapes. And forget field trips -- if they take any, the Home and School Association will have to foot the bill.

About a third of school districts in the tri-county region saw their spending plans defeated by tax-weary voters in April, prompting cuts that will be felt by students when most return this week: fewer teachers, bus routes, janitors, construction projects, special education aides and extracurricular activities.

Roof repair was delayed in Winslow. Assemblies were cut in Southampton. And the 860-student Harrison Township Elementary School was left without an assistant principal.

In Gloucester Township, a proposed "Good To Great" program, which would have brought in eight academic coaches, was axed, saving a taxpayer in the average-assessed home $28.78.

"Certainly if (lawmakers) come up with a new funding formula I'd love to see it," said John Bilodeau, Gloucester Township business administrator. "Because the way we're going about it right now, it's hurting everybody."

While a few districts are like Lumberton -- which has a 15-year streak of voter-approved budgets -- most in the tri-county area are like Waterford, which has seen its budget fail seven years in a row.

The defeat is forcing the sale of Waterford's entire bus fleet and the dismissal of all 25 bus drivers, some of whom drove two generations of students. The district is now contracting out for cheaper transportation services.

In addition, Hammonton schools, which educate Waterford's older students, raised tuition $2.5 million this year. To offset higher tuition costs, the burden fell to Waterford's three elementary schools, where plans to hire the first world language teacher and expand into full-day kindergarten were delayed -- again.

"The fact that we're not on a warning list (for sub-par academic achievement) is miraculous," said Waterford Superintendent Gary Dentino. "The fact that we have pulled this off for six years is amazing, because we keep cutting back. . . . It's just killing us to have to live through this."

Administrators say they struggle to stay within a state-mandated 4 percent cap on spending when teacher salaries, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association, are jumping 4.6 percent.

Often school boards make deep cuts even before offering the budgets to voters. For example, Lenape Regional announced administrative layoffs and cut funding for the Lenape Performing Arts Center before the April election. Its budget was still defeated.

Chesilhurst proposed a 0 percent tax increase for the third consecutive year -- and for the third year in a row, the budget was rejected, forcing the dismissal of a special-education aide and a community liaison in charge of encouraging parental involvement.

After budgets are defeated by voters, the municipal governing body has the final say on cuts. But school boards can make a last-ditch appeal to the state, as Willingboro did this year after the township council called for $2.6 million to be cut from its $29 million tax levy.

Late last week, the state Education Commissioner ruled that just $1.5 million would be removed. That meant that the Willingboro schools could hire half the number of new assistant principals, security guards and guidance counselors that it had originally sought.

Willingboro's proposed alternative school was downgraded into a part-time afternoon program instead of being eliminated.

In some cases, students may not notice the cuts. The retirements of four veteran teachers -- who earn more than rookie teachers -- saved Haddon Township $100,000 this year because they were replaced by newer teachers.

And this year governing bodies in two towns, Franklin and Westville, chose not to cut their defeated budgets.

On the flip side, Lindenwold borough council slashed nearly $1 million that there will be a tax decrease this year.

Yet school officials don't automatically blame voters who force the cuts.

"Many of them are making decisions between paying medications and paying school taxes, and I always tell them go ahead and vote the budget down and vote for your meds," Dentino said.

It's not the parents' fault, either, he said.

"Our community is being vilified as not supporting their public schools, and it's just the opposite," he said. Dentino and other superintendents blame the system -- and the politicians who haven't fixed the state's school funding scheme.

Dentino believes property taxes should be raised less than 1 percent, and older people shouldn't have to pay school taxes.

"To have to tax them to the point where they have to sell their home is just a tragedy, and is avoidable," he said.

Last year, four state legislative committees put forth 98 property tax reform proposals that would have changed the way schools are funded. None was passed. Local legislators, like Assembly Majority Leader Joe Roberts and Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, both D-Camden, have also endorsed holding a constitutional convention on property tax reform.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a law this year mandating that county superintendents develop plans to eliminate K-6 and K-8 districts and consolidate them into regional districts.

But Dentino proudly describes how his K-6 district saves money -- spending $14,000 for its own scaffolding and paint guns. And he rejects the idea that larger districts would be more efficient.

"This nonsense they're putting us through is an exercise in silliness," he said.

Meanwhile, when school opens Wednesday, Kimberlee Curtis' twin sons will get on a Waterford school bus with a driver they've never met.

"A lot of parents are concerned because they knew the (old) bus drivers, and we knew they'd be safe with our children," she said. "The budget had to be cut, so that's what happened."

This article appeared in the Courier-Post. Photos by John Ziomek, Courier-Post.