Schools

Extra State Aid: No Tax Relief, For Now

Livingston's Board of Education says it will wait to decide how to spend additional funding.

The given to Livingston Public Schools could potentially be used for property tax relief – or to restore programs like world language – but the Board of Education on Monday was reluctant to rush into any decision. Instead school leaders will decide over the next school year how best to spend the money.

Gov. Chris Chrisie asked school districts to use the money to reduce taxes. Livingston was among a handful of districts in Essex County with the to change the tax levy due today because of the timing of their scheduled voting meeting.

“We’re one of the lucky ones – if you want to call it that – to have this conversation,” said Steve Robinson, the district’s business administrator.

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For Livingston's schools, aid was doubled, from the original $917,527 to $1.835 million. A year ago, . Livingston lost 5 percent of its budget and made tough cuts that included world language, a gifted and talented program for music and art, and benefits for special education aides.

"Rather than rush to restore, let us do a bit of an assessment of our academic needs and the cuts from our programs," said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brad Draeger.

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The governor provided that flexibility by saying school districts could save the money for next year and even 2013-2014 in a memo sent to school districts last Thursday.

In Livingston, voters a $100.8 million school budget in April by wide margins. The budget included an increase in school taxes: For the average Livingston homeowner, an additional $256 this coming year.

The district plans to spend the majority of the state aid it originally expected, $700,000, on new for classrooms, including laptops, upgrading the high school television studio, and document cameras. 

That leaves about $1.7 million for next year, money that potentially could go toward property tax relief and restoring programs to the classroom, board members said. The BOE has been shy to earmark the state money, in part because a that Christie restore funding cut to poorer districts.

"I don't know (if the state aid) will be sustained for the next couple years or if it's going to be a jigsaw up and down where we don't know," Draeger said.

The wild card, added Robinson, is the state's decision expected in September on two applications for . The costs to the district "would basically eat up" the state money, Draeger said.

If the money is there, board members said they were open to review all the options on spending the state aid next year.

Such a review will include, "What academic needs are we not meeting" Draeger said. "How did we hurt ourselves when made that 5 percent cut? What academic needs do we need to address because of that 5 percent cut? ...  If we're going to build this back into the (20)12-13 year, what do we need to put back into sustainable programs?"

Updated: The Millburn Board of Education held an emergency meeting Monday night and said it would provide tax relief next year. The South Orange-Maplewood School district also decided not to offer immediate relief.


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