Elected officials from South Orange and Maplewood who serve on the Board of School Estimate (BoSE) gathered on Wednesday night to review the school budget approved by the Board of Education on Monday, which contains a 3.48 percent increase in the tax levy. They'll reconvene in the Board's meeting room next Wednesday, March 31, to vote on whether to adopt it.

Though Superintendent Brian Osborne had originally been instructed by the Board to keep the tax increase to 3 percent so as not to further burden the taxpayers, Gov. Chris Christie's move last week to drastically reduce state aid to schools—resulting in a 80.9 percent cut to South Orange-Maplewood in the 2010-11 school year—was a gamechanger. The $112 draft budget, which had already called for laying off 29 district staff members (while hiring six elementary school teachers to cope with rising enrollment) and changing prekindergarten from full-day to a two-hour session—was further trimmed down to $108.6 million over the weekend.

"In our view, the budget is very lean," said Steve Latz of the Maplewood Citizens Budget Advisory Schools Committee, during the public comment period. "We recognize the stress to the taxpayers, but we think that the superintendent has done a commendable job."

The latest budgeting assumes no salary increases (contingent on negotiations with the teachers union); that employees start contributing 1.5 percent of their salary toward health care premiums (as per legislation that Gov. Christie signed into law on Tuesday, which should take effect in 60 days); and the outsourcing of 76 paraprofessionals who serve as teacher aides to work with children in special education. As per the plan, they'll be outsourced to the Essex Regional Special Services Commission, where they'll receive lower hourly salaries and no health benefits, though they'll still be eligible for pensions.

Osborne estimated that the district will save $1.6 million through the outsourcing.

"It's an incredibly painful thing to do," he said, noting that the move is beneficial from a fiscal perspective, since the district wouldn't be on the hook to pay the 10 to 15 percent annual health premium increase for those employees. "The alternative is to fire scores of teachers."

Osborne noted that the budget prioritizes children at the expense of some adults employed by the district. Responding to a question by South Orange Village President Douglas Newman, Osborne said that the district still planned to move forward with the main thrusts of its technology program, though some aspects—like converting middle school home economics classrooms into tech labs—will be delayed.

"This budget, while not going overboard, remains ambitious in the area of technology," he said.

Maplewood Deputy Mayor Fred Profeta raised the question of whether the BoSE will be asked to lift taxes above the 4 percent cap if the teachers union doesn't agree to a salary freeze. (The local New Jersey Education Association's last contract expired on June 30, 2009; they received an incremental increase that resulted in an overall 2.5 percent raise for union employees effective July 1, due to the expiration of the contract. They aren't eligible for an increase this year if the union and the district fail to come to terms.)

"Maybe," responded Board of Education President Mark Gleason, who explained that a 2 percent salary increase would result in an additional $1 million in spending, equivalent to a percentage point of tax increase. The district's alternative to seeking more tax revenue would be to find additional savings by cutting line items in the budget. (Osborne also noted that the cap on property tax increases is technically in the double digits, since upward adjustments are allowed based on the extent of state aid reduction this year.)

While concerns were expressed over the effect of layoffs and outsourcing (in particular, a possible drop-off in the enthusiasm of paraprofessionals for their jobs), BoSE members were largely admiring of the scope of information provided by Osborne and his staff and the job done to retool the budget in the course of five days.

"In the words of Mr. Biden, these cuts are a big deal," said Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca, who mentioned his difficult experience with laying off municipal employees, as well as the considerable cost of paying unemployment.

"It's going to be tough next week to sit here and vote for this, for a lot of reasons," he said, noting that more surprises from Trenton could be in store. "I think this is a very dynamic process... I think a lot of things are going to change between now, when we pass this, to when the governor signs the budget."