Freehold school officials reveal harsh budget news

BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

FREEHOLD - Residents of Freehold Borough will be paying more in school taxes in 2007-08 but children will be getting less for the money.

According to the 2007-08 budget recently introduced by the Board of Education, there will be a loss of personnel, larger class sizes, less art and music instruction, no interscholastic middle school sports and no extracurricular activities at any grade level.

Residents packed the gymnasium at the Park Avenue complex on March 5 to hear what is in store for the coming school year.

The news was not good.

In a presentation by Superintendent of Schools Elizabeth O'Connell and Business Administrator Veronica Wolf, parents and teachers in the audience heard the news - the cutting of a guidance counselor, a librarian, an art teacher, a music teacher, a math supervisor, one fourth-grade teacher, one fifth-grade teacher, three school office assistants and two custodians.

The Freehold Borough school district has three schools: the Park Avenue Elementary School, the Freehold Learning Center elementary school, and the Freehold Intermediate School. There are about 1,400 pupils enrolled in the district.

According to O'Connell, there are currently a total of six fifth-grade classes. In order to keep one of the district's two guidance counselors and one of the district's two librarians, there will be five fifth-grade classes next year with an average of 28 students in each class. The superintendent did the same with the fourth grade, which will have an average class size of 26 students next year.

Administrators said the reductions in personnel and programming are necessary due to the impact of a new state law that places a limit on the amount of money that can be raised in local property taxes. The law was the state's response to complaints that school property taxes were soaring.

On April 17, voters will be asked to approve a general fund tax levy of $7.4 million to support the Board of Education's proposed $16.7 million budget for the 2007-08 school year. They are being asked to vote on a budget that will not provide for much in the way of new programs and will also remove much of what school administrators have been trying to hold on to.

The school district's debt service (payment of outstanding loans) will total $768,590 in 2007-08 and the tax levy to pay that amount will be $614,451. Residents do not vote on the debt service tax levy.

Figures provided by O'Connell and Wolf indicate that the K-8 school district will receive $7.2 million in state aid, an increase of $797,465 over what was received in 2006-07.

If voters approve the budget as proposed, the K-8 school district tax rate will rise by 7.4 cents from 66.7 cents to 74.1 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

That means the owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $257,000 will pay $1,904 in K-8 school taxes in 2007-08, up from $1,714 in 2006-07. The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 will pay $2,223 in K-8 school taxes, up from $,2001 in 2006-07. The owner of a home assessed at $400,000 will pay $2,964 in K-8 school taxes in 2007-08, up from $2,668 in 2006-07.

K-8 school taxes are one portion of a homeowner's overall property tax bill. The tax bill also includes municipal taxes, Freehold Regional High School District taxes, Monmouth County taxes and several other assessments.

The proposed budget lists 57.8 percent of the total general fund for wages and salaries and 37.4 percent for all purchased services including utilities, special education programs, transportation, and benefits. Those categories account for 95.2 percent of the budget appropriations.

According to Wolf, there is a projected 7 percent increase in health benefits in the proposed budget.

Wolf said administrators went through the budget line by line by make cuts.

The 2007-08 budget will include the addition of a full-time World Language

teacher for the Park Avenue Elementary School and an additional part-time World Language teacher at the Freehold Learning Center elementary school. Currently, there is one part-time World Language teacher in the district. Two first-grade teachers are also added in the proposed budget - one for the Freehold Learning Center and one for the Park Avenue Elementary School. There will be a total of eight first-grade classes next year with an average of 21 pupils in each class.

Board President Jim Keelan said the budget is based on the "maximum amount of money we could go to taxpayers for. Besides the state aid and federal aid, there is no other source of money. We can only consider putting on a second [ballot] question for voters for the sports and arts, which will, in the end, put it back onto the taxpayers."

Board members are considering the possibility of a second ballot question, which would return the extracurricular activities and middle school sports. This question would contain a separate tax increase.

Keelan said a second question would include school plays, band concerts and other art and music-related activities at a cost of $26,000, and the middle school sports programs, which cost $36,000. The middle school sports are soccer, basketball, baseball, and track and field.

The budget is presently under review by the Monmouth County Superintendent of Schools.

The board has scheduled a public hearing on the budget for March 26.

"I have four kids in this school district," Keelan told the audience at the March 5 meeting. "The board is not happy with this and we will talk to whoever will listen to us and even to those who won't listen to us."

Linda McCarthy, the president of the Freehold Borough teachers association, told board members she was devastated with the news she heard.

"Freehold Borough should not have to cut a staff that works so intensely to do what's right," McCarthy said. "I know you are all doing what you can, but we need to compete with other schools in the county, in the state, in the country, in the world. Other districts will not lose their guidance counselor or have to have 26 students in a classroom. I implore you to make sure that you will really fight for all of us."

Mark Hudzik, a special education teacher and vice president of the teachers association, said, "After reviewing the budget, I see this spells tragedy for us, but you already know that. I heard the term 'educationally sound' but I don't think that applies here. Year after year we have had to tighten our belts. This is the first time I have ever seen anything like this. This will diminish the quality of education in 2007. Do not let this happen."

In a later conversation with Keelan, the board president said the children of Freehold Borough are being denied their constitutional rights to a thorough and efficient education.

"We are $900 below what the state tells us we have to have for each child. How can they allow this?" he asked, his voice edged with frustration.

Wolf said she believes new laws that deal with school funding are "designed to pinch smaller school districts in light of the fact that no one has opted for voluntary consolidation."

"This is the next step in the process. It is almost as if they are pushing us to a level where we don't have any choice," the board's administrator said.