Final Hearing on School Budget Monday Night

Chathamites have another chance to let the Board of Education hear their thoughts on the school budget before Election Day. Monday night the board will have a public hearing of citizens on the school budget for the 2011-2012 academic year.

The budget includes the addition of five new staff members, a partnership with Rutgers University for dual enrollment at Chatham High School and Rutgers, a new Advanced Placement World History class and a Theatre Arts I class at the high school, a new Chinese II at Chatham High and Chatham Middle School, and program and materials alignment with Common Core Standards in the kindergarten through eight grades.

This year's budget includes a total tax levy of $52,791,296, an increase of 2.4 percent over last year's budget, and a general operating budget of $56,629,655, plus another $3,719,389 in local, state and federal grants and money for the repayment of debts. The total of all these funds adds to $60,349,044.

The chart below, taken from a presentation by Finance Committee Chair Alan Routh last Wednesday, shows the budget as it will be presented to the Board of Education Monday.

Executive County Superintendent Kathleen Serafino approved the preliminary budget from the School District of the Chathams without changes, according to Routh.

Routh also noted that between the 2008-2009 academic year and 2009-2010, the district saw a five percent growth in enrollment but had to cut 10 staff positions. Those positions were added again at the start of the 2010-11 year, a year in which the district again saw a growth in enrollment. "It's pretty impressive to have those kinds of efficiencies, to have the same number of staff that we had two years ago when we have 260 more students," Routh said.

The district received an Education Job Grant of $99,113 for the purpose of saving or creating jobs, plus an additional net of $435,184 in state aid (total state aid was $517,006, minus a debt assessment charge of $81,822).

Two Percent Cap and Cap Banking

The state also granted some exceptions to the two percent tax levy cap to the district to accommodate growing enrollment (an additional $568,238, or 1.1 percent, was the maximum allowed addition to the tax levy) and for growing health benefits costs (a maximum of $296,129, or 0.6 percent, allowed).

These exceptions, Routh said, would have allowed the district to increase the tax levy by a maximum of 3.7 percent, but the slow economy and increased concern from residents over high taxes mitigated the Finance Committee's actions. The increase will be 2.4 percent over the tax levy from last year.

The remaining 1.3 percent, which totals $675,387, will used for a bank cap. Cap banking, Routh said, is a new feature of the budget that allows any money not collected in the tax levy to be set aside for use in the next two academic years, with permission from the voters. "It's not money, it's taxation authority. It's authority to ask the voters to approve a tax increase," Routh said. "If you're able to budget less than you're allowed to spend by the cap calculation, you can ... use that in requesting taxation authority over the next two years."

Cap banking could help the district meet any future deficits or budget gaps outside of their anticipated expenses. "That's a very welcome addition," Routh said, "because inflation, gasoline at the pump, commodities, food that you buy, ... those things are going up at double-digit rates. At some point in time, [the] two percent cap is going to bite us. At that time, we can use [this money] to meet any budget deficits we have if the voters approve it."

Accommodating for Growing Enrollment

The budget includes funding from a capital reserve fund of $2,018,255 for an additional four classrooms to be constructed at Chatham High School. The high school has a maximum capacity of about 1,200 students, according to an interview in fall 2010 with and current enrollment hovers right around 1,100 students. By September 2013, demographers predict that 1,257 students will attend Chatham High School. By the time this year's kindergarteners begin their freshman year in September 2020, enrollment will be at 1,540.

Money from the capital reserve fund, accummulated over several years, will go toward the construction of four new classrooms at Chatham High School,  which will help to prevent overcrowding and keep classroom sizes low. Board President Steve Barna said that the board also hopes to expand the parking lot at Chatham High School, which currently is also over capacity.

"The plan right now is that [if bids for the classroom expansion] come in lower than we anticipate, that would determine the size of the parking lot expansion," Barna said."[If] the addition costs more than we allocated, then we might not have a parking lot."

Barna said he had seen sketches that allowed for an additional 40 to 80 parking spaces, depending on the funding available. "It's not a locked-in plan right now, it depends on how much money may or may not be left over."

Long-term growth in the district affects more than just Chatham High School. Routh said district enrollment, which currently hovers just under 4,000 students, will easily reach over 5,000 students within the next 10 to 15 years.

Activity Fees and Young Child Class

In the 2010-2011 budget, an Activities Fee of $150 was added for any student participating in a sport, club or extracurricular activity at Chatham High School. The fee was an annual expense, covering students for the entire academic year. In 2011-2012, the Activities Fee will be reduced to $100.

Routh and Superintendent Jim O'Neill also said that some changes would be made to the Young Child elective at Chatham High School to combine it with the Chatham Incusion Pre-School (CHIPs) program and other schools in the district.

CHIPs is a preschool program mandated by the state. It will accept the same ages as the Cougar Cubs program (3- to 4-year-olds) at a fee of $1,500 for the year. The morning program will run from 8:40 to 11 a.m. at Milton Avenue School and the afternoon program will run from 12:30 to 2:50 p.m. at Washington Avenue School.

Grade school teachers from Milton Avenue, Washington Avenue, Southern Boulevard School and Lafayette Avenue School have also expressed an interest in working with students from the Young Child program. For example, students who want to teach second grade English could be paired with an English teacher in the second grade.

"We're down to one program that is being altered, modified, reconfigured, so that we can more effectively operate within the budget constraints that we have," said O'Neill. "It was a tough decision that we had to reach, and it was not that we doubted the value of the program."

O'Neill also said that this reconfigured program could accommodate almost twice as many high schoolers as are currently enrolled in the Young Child program.

Groh said, "It's never been a question of value, it's really been a question of how can we meet the needs of 1,100 students and fulfill the requirements that the state says must be fulfilled, with the resources that we have."

Changes in Staff Positions

The budget for this year also allows for a total of eight new staff positions in the schools. Three of these are teaching positions at the high school, one in math, one in world language (O'Neill has stated that he hopes to hire a teacher capable of teaching more than one language, such as French and Spanish) and one in English.

Three more teachers will be hired at the middle school, two to teach English and one Basic Skills instructor.

Milton Avenue School will be able to hire their own librarian after sharing one with Washington Avenue School over this past year, and the district will also hire a behaviorist to help guide students through their academic careers.

At the same time, three positions will be eliminated in the district, including one first grade teacher at Southern Boulevard School, which is currently seeing a decrease in enrollment. The district will also eliminate one secretary in the district office and one special education instructor who currently teaches at both Washington and Milton Avenue Schools.

"This current school year, we have the same number of teachers that we had two years ago, with 260 more kids," Routh said. "Next year we're going to have ... 340 students more (than two years ago,) covered by five additional teachers."

The Board of Education meets Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Chatham Township Municipal Building.