HOWELL — Board of Education members have voted unanimously to accept the Howell Township Council’s decision to add $200,000 back to the amount the Howell K- 8 School District may collect in local property taxes in 2010-11.

The additional funding means that courtesy busing, which had not been included in the 2010-11 school year budget, will be restored.

In September, every child who attends an elementary school or middle school in Howell will be provided with transportation to and from school regardless of how close a child lives to the school he attends.

Before board members agreed to Superintendent of Schools Enid Golden’s suggestion that they accept the school tax levy recertification, board President Mary Cerretani lashed out at council members for remarks they made at a July 13 council meeting.

“I feel compelled to take a few minutes of everyone’s time to respond to the last council meeting, where the Board of Education was bashed,” Cerretani said at the board’s July 21 meeting.

“I have never had to do something like this, but tonight I will do it,” she said. “It’s difficult to know where to start, since the comments that were made at the (council) meeting were filled with inaccuracies, accusations and inflammatory political rhetoric.”

Council members at the July 13 meeting took turns criticizing the school board for eliminating courtesy busing from the budget. The service has been provided to all Howell elementary school and middle school pupils for years, although the board is not obligated to provide busing for children who live close to the school they attend.

Providing that service is considered a courtesy, hence the name courtesy busing.

The elimination of courtesy busing by the school board forced township officials to come up with a plan to provide school crossing guards along the routes hundreds of children would have been walking.

State law requires municipalities to pay for the cost of school crossing guards, not school districts.

Howell Police Chief Ronald T. Carter recommended an option that he said would cost the township $865,000 to hire, train and place a school crossing guard at each intersection children would come to on their way to and from school.

Deputy Mayor Angela Dalton said at the July 13 meeting that the elimination of courtesy busing was “a really sad attempt to pull one over on the people of Howell.”

“If there is a fast one being pulled, it is not on the part of the Board of Education, but rather by those who wish to divert attention from the township’s budget disaster,” Cerretani said.

Council members’ claims that the school board eliminated courtesy busing in retaliation for the council’s reduction of the school tax levy after the tax levy’s defeat by voters in April was the “most flagrant” inaccuracy of all the statements, Cerretani said.

“The council was acting strictly from political positioning, rather than from full knowledge of the school budget,” she said. “Courtesy busing was pulled (from the 2010-11 budget) in February.”

The decision to eliminate courtesy busing was discussed at board meetings, on the district’s Internet website and given to the auditor the township hired to review the district’s budget after the tax levy’s defeat in the April election, Cerretani said.

“Mrs. Dalton said courtesy busing was never going to go away,” the board president said. “If you ask any of the board members, I’m sure they would all tell you they thought it was and no one can tell me differently.”

Cerretani and Golden said no one anticipated how much the tab would be to hire and train school crossing guards.

“I don’t think in any of our wildest dreams that anyone thought the crossing guards would be that much money,” Cerretani said.

“I, too, watched the Township Council meeting,” Golden said. “I felt some of the comments were ridiculous and I was shocked.”

Cerretani also objected to Councilwoman Susan Schroeder Clark’s statement that the school district administration had not made any concessions during the budget process.

More than 22 percent — nine administrative positions — were cut from the 2010- 11 budget. The administration early on agreed to a wage freeze, Golden has said.

“We owe it to the taxpayers to quit campaigning and sniping ... and actively put our collective resources together to lead our community out of these dire times,” Cerretani said.

Mayor Robert F. Walsh said at the July 13 council meeting that he had requested information from school officials more than six weeks ago about the number of sick days the district had bought back from employees, but still had not received it.

Cerretani said no Open Public Records Act request had been made for the information, and she said it took time to research what Walsh had requested.

“Whoever told the mayor about millions of sick days was mistaken,” she said. “The documents will be provided as soon as they exist.”

As a result of the recent changes, the school board will now collect $64.5 million from local taxpayers in 2010-11 to support the operation of the school district, instead of the previously certified $64.3 million tax levy. BusinessAdministrator/Board Secretary Ronald Sanasac said the county school business administrator and county tax assessor had signed off on the school tax levy to be recertified.

“Every domino is in line for this to take place,” he said at the board meeting.

Golden sent a letter to parents on July 22 informing them that courtesy busing would continue for the upcoming school year.

Kindergarten students will be provided with busing to and from school. Students attending morning kindergarten will be transported to school and back home at the midday dismissal time. Students who attend the afternoon sessions will be bused to school at the midday arrival time and transported home at the end of the school day.

The district’s transportation department will mail out bus passes in mid-August with the bus route number, bus stop location and approximate time of pick-up, Golden said in the letter.

Anyone with transportation questions should call the transportation department at 732-202-1740.

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