Hardyston wrestles with school budget

Hardyston — There’s good news and bad news for the Hardyston Township school district’s 2010-2011 preliminary budget, but there’s a hard road ahead for the board of education Each year, the school district has to produce a budget that doesn’t exceed the previous year’s budget by more than 4 percent. That’s the state mandate. Cutting the preliminary budget down to that limit is the challenge. The budget contains an extra second-grade teacher, renovations to the elementary school — 40 percent of which are being funded by the state — and computer upgrades, as well as additional hours for the middle school guidance counselor. But like every year, there are also several increases in expenses that aren’t voluntary, including contractually obligated increases in salaries, in health and dental insurance costs and increased costs of energy. Sekelsky noted that the middle school’s utility bills are currently four times as much as the elementary school’s, a situation they will be investigating this year. In addition, the budget calls for spending an extra approximately $71,000 for aides, the number of which are determined by the individual education plans of the students. That is not something the district can alter. Helping keep costs down But there is also some good news, according to Chief School Administrator James Sekelsky. Transportation has only gone up $6,000 because of fewer students who must be placed in out of district programs. That has also saved on tuition costs. In fact, with tuition coming at more than $50,000 per student, the district expects to save $186,000 now that three students have left Hardyston. Another avenue for savings are the bus routes, according to Sumpman. “Some buses have relatively low numbers of kids,” he said. “We’re looking at how we could save two bus routes without making the hours too long.” This could save around $35,000. But those savings aren’t enough. The board discussed removing the new teacher, the technology upgrade and the elementary school renovations in order to meet the cap, but according to district superintendent Martin G. Sumpman, “even if we do remove all of those things and remove two bus routes, we’re still $100,000 over cap, so we have some serious cutting to do.” Board member Ed Blahut agreed, saying “They are all good projects, but the question is: What can we afford?” “We have to know what the real priorities are. I think we have to make a commitment to doing what we can within the budget,” said Sumpman.

I think that all of the things that we put in the budget are important to the education of the children, so we have some hard choices ahead.” Martin G. Supman, Hardyston school district superintendent