After months of teeth-clenching by school officials around the state, waiting to see whether Gov. Corzine's 2009-2010 budget would include cuts in aid to school districts, the numbers are in.

Despite the state's fiscal woes, schools escaped the ax, and no district is subject to a cut in aid, according to state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy, in a statement released yesterday. Up to a 5 percent increase has been allocated for 171 needy districts, including Bloomfield, Belleville and Nutley in Essex County.

Aid to South Orange-Maplewood will remain flat, holding at the $6,486,960 it received last year. The specter of cuts in state aid—which could have necessitated an overhaul of the budget proposal—was raised at recent Board of Education meetings, but the existing proposal will come up for a vote at the Board's meeting on Monday.

"The preliminary proposed budget that we’ve already released was based on flat state aid, and now that we have the state numbers, we’re preparing to request approval from the Board of Education on Monday night," said Osborne, in an e-mail.