Consultant to review school tab

Consultant
to review
school tab

LAKEWOOD — The Board of Education’s proposed 2002-03 school year budget which included an 11.7-cent increase in the school tax rate was rejected by voters in the April 16 election.

The proposed $78.9 million budget that carried a local tax levy of $45.2 million was defeated by a count of 3,992 opposed to 1,860 in favor.

It is now the responsibility of the Township Committee to review the budget and determine if reductions in the spending plan should be recommended.

The committee can recommend reductions in the budget, which the school board may accept or appeal, or the governing body may leave the budget as the board proposed it, in effect negating the voters’ wishes to defeat the plan.

This is not the first time a budget in Lakewood has been defeated, according to Superintendent of Schools Ernest J. Cannava, who said he was disappointed by the vote.

Lakewood’s school tax rate is currently $1.518 per $100 of assessed valuation. If the budget had passed, the tax rate would have risen to $1.635 per $100 of assessed valuation.

Although an ad hoc committee that reviewed the budget said it supported the spending plan, residents expressed their displeasure with the proposed the tax hike.

School district Business Administrator Kathryn Fuoto said one reason for the projected tax increase was the lack of an increase in state aid granted to the district. As with all school districts in New Jersey, Fuoto said, the freeze in state aid that kept the 2002-03 figure at the same level as 2001-02 really affected the budget.

At the April 18 meeting of the Township Committee, members of the governing body announced their decision to hire Frank Marlow to help review the budget. Marlow is a former superintendent of schools in Bergen County’s Leonia school district. The committee voted unanimously to hire him.

"Mr. Marlow was among the first to identify the fact that the district was in a deficit several years ago," said Committeewoman Marta Harrison.

"Every year until now we have underbudgeted and now it is catching up with us," Fuoto had said at a public hearing on the budget. "We think that the 2002-03 proposed budget is an appropriate way to begin rectifying that."

According to Deputy Mayor Charles Cunliffe, Marlow’s job will be to review the defeated budget in order to determine if any cuts can or should be made.

"Mr. Marlow’s job will be to determine whether each item provides for a thorough education and whether students would be worse off if the item in question were to be cut," Cunliffe said.

The deputy mayor said he hoped the three new board members who were elected to three-year terms on April 16 — Leonard Thomas, Chet Galdo and Abraham Ostreicher — will begin to turn the board around.

"Although I have hopes of the board being turned around, I am still saddened by the defeat of the budget," Cunliffe said. "It shows the public is dissatisfied with the board’s past practices."

According to Township Manager Frank Edwards, officials in many towns hire former educators who are familiar with the school budget processes and education regulations in order to help them review a defeated budget.

School administrators were expected to deliver all budget documents to the Township Committee by yesterday and the committee has until May 20 to certify the budget with the Ocean County Board of Taxation.

According to Cunliffe, the budget review will be an interesting process.

"There is nothing left to cut out," he said. "The budget is bare bones as it is."