Politics & Government

South Orange-Maplewood $103.2 Million School Tax Levy Approved

The vote was not assured, but ultimately the Board of School Estimate voted to raise the requested funds, for a 1.89% increase over last year's school tax levy.

The Board of School Estimate approved two resolutions on Wednesday night to raise a total of $103.2 million to support the South Orange-Maplewood School District 2011-12 budget.

The tax levy represents a 1.89% increase over the tax levy for the 2010-11 school year.

The first resolution was for $99,960,248 for the general fund; the second was $3,258,423 for debt service.

Find out what's happening in Maplewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The vote was not assured. Two of the six voting members of the Board of School Estimate voted "no" to the first resolution, with another member casting a "reluctant yes." Four votes are needed to pass the levy; a tie defeats the levy.

The vote followed during which Board of School Estimate members raised questions about funding for programs such as the Montrose School and after-school athletics and talked about the possibility of bringing in the budget at an even lower tax rate rate in order to provide taxpayers with relief in difficult economic times.

Find out what's happening in Maplewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca was the first to declare that he would vote in support of the levy.

"I'm going to be voting for this budget, and I don't do it as a light decision." DeLuca said that the "question of property  taxes can't paralyze us from providing what we need to provide. People are looking at property taxes, but those at open houses want to know 'What are the schools like?'"

DeLuca decried the fact the local school districts are not receiving significant aid from the state or federal government. "Given that, we're making the best decisions we can," although, DeLuca said "we can make the process better, more transparent."

DeLuca went so far as to propose eliminating the Board of School Estimate which he felt was no longer "appropriate under the current statute of the 2% cap." DeLuca said, "People are very confused about the BSE. The Board of Education should be directly answerable to the people."

Maplewood Deputy Mayor Fred Profeta was the member most vocally opposed to the tax levy. "In my estimation, taxes are now Maplewood's number one issue. That means it's more important than the police budget, it's more important than the fire budget, and it's more important than the school budget."

"We just can't afford to buy what we want," said Profeta. "We have to live within our means."

Profeta also said he did not cast his vote lightly, citing his years of work on the Community Coalition on Race and his desire to close the achievement gap between black and white students. However, Profeta said, "The number one problem is the sustainability of the school district. All programs will die unless something fundamental is done."

Profeta outlined possible savings through researching and piloting technology-based programs, closing Montrose School, early graduation, fees for athletic teams, increasing class sizes, reviewing scheduling at the high school, shared services, aggressively pursuing grants and energy savings.

Maplewood Vice Mayor Kathy Leventhal countered Profeta's statement about tax relief being of utmost importance to residents: "Before we moved here in the 1980s, I researched the school district. Maplewood and South Orange gave us what we wanted in diversity and achievement." Leventhal said she did regret that the district was no longer a blue ribbon school district (top 10 in the state): "I want to get there again," she said. "The district goals are moving us there and this budget continues that."

South Orange Village Trustee Michael Goldberg voted against the tax levy. "One concern — the core mission is education. We keep hearing that there's nothing more that we can cut without impacting our students." Goldberg questioned why the district was funding after-school athletics program. He wanted to know what other districts were charging in terms of fees and if programs were redundant of municipal recreation department programs. "But jobs are being eliminated. I'm really struggling with that."

South Orange Village Trustee Nancy Gould was the de facto deciding vote. "I believe more can be cut," she said, then listed the "enormous maintenance budget," cutting administration, eliminating Montrose School and charging fees for extracurricular sports. However, she did not want to see cuts in the classrooms. "I don't want any teachers cut," she said, but noted that, if the levy was voted down, the BSE could not control what was eliminated from the budget to meet a new lowered rate. Therefore, she said, "I will be voting a reluctant yes."

South Orange Village President Doug Newman voted in favor of the tax levy, saying he was impressed with the level of detailed information that the district administration and Board of Education had made available and the "incredible responsiveness" shown by the district staff in answering BSE members' questions from the March 23 meeting. Newman did want to see a long-range facilities plan and he echoed the opinions of other BSE members in saying that the BSE's involvement in the budget process needed to start "weeks and months" earlier.

Newman explained that the tax levy is split 57.8% to 42.2% across Maplewood and South Orange, respectively. For Maplewood, the blended 2011 tax levy would be 2.85% (a combination of the second half of last year's school school levy increase and the first half of the 2011-12 school year's levy increase). For South Orange, the blended school tax levy for 2011 would be 2.44%.

Board of Education President Mark Gleason noted that, although the rate had not been taken down to zero, the 1.89% tax levy increase represented the smallest school tax levy he had seen in 15 years of school board involvement. The 1.89% was not only within the new 2% state-mandated cap, but was well-within the 3% cap exception available to the school district due to enrollment increases.

Board of Education member Richard Laine, who has been at the table negotiating with the , noted the potential impact of the tax levy approval on contract talks.

"I hope that voting at 2% allows us to have the resources to close the contract," said Laine.

Earlier in the meeting, Board of Ed member Beth Daugherty had told the BSE that the Board of Education and SOMEA had "a very productive meeting on Friday. I'm very confident we will soon have a resolution." Daugherty noted that the budget represented 3% in spending cuts from 2009-10, but was providing for a 3% higher student population.

When the first resolution passed, the audience — composed largely of district teachers wearing their green SOMEA t-shirts — applauded enthusiastically. The second resolution for the debt service was approved unanimously.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here