Hardyston makes do

Despite painful cuts, a budget lower than current, By Jennifer Knocha Hardyston — In his speech about cuts in school aid, Gov. Chris Christie said he was going to “spread the pain.” He made good on his word in Hardyston Township. “This reduction far exceeded what we anticipated,” said Hardyston Schools Superintendent Martin Sumpman. “We believed that the worst case scenario was a 15 percent reduction in aid. We were prepared to deal with that.” Instead, the district lost 22.3 percent of its state aid, which leaves a $523,613 hole in the budget. Hardyston had anticipated losing at least $200,000 based on previous statements from the governor, and had planned for it. “What plans we had made for even the potentially bad news was not enough,” Sumpman said. “To say the least, we were taken aback.” Bringing on the pain Then, according the School Business Administrator James Sekelsky, the district got more bad news. Over the past 10 years, the school district had bonded out for projects, with the agreement that the state would provide 40 percent of the payments and the school would pay 60 percent. In the 2010-2011 budget, $68,301 was expected from the state toward such debts already incurred. The amount was originally reduced by 15 percent to approximately $56,000, but then the state added an assessment for the School Development Association fund that reduced the amount even more. “They took back money that was lent, spent and used for prior projects to the tune of $49,301,” said Sekelsky. This leaves a total of $8,600 out of the original $68,301.00 due to the school district. So is there any good news? Yes, said Sumpman. With extensive cuts, the new budget comes in at $10,377,320. That is $107,515 less than last year’s budget. But with the new cuts in aid, there will still be an increase in taxes, according to Sekelsky. By law, the district can only increase its budget by 4 percent and the current budget is $9,000 under that cap. But since many districts may not be able to keep to that limit, this year the state has given every school district that lost state aid a waiver to exceed the cap. Hardyston’s board has not opted to go that route. What to jettison There is still more bad news, however. Items originally put in the budget, like switching the art room in the elementary school to another room, computer replacements, an energy usage at the middle school and an electrical upgrade project at the elementary school, have been pulled out. The emergency snow plowing funds and the increase in hours for the child study team have been cut out as well. The budgets for facilities, instructional supplies and copier costs have been cut down. The hardest cuts, according to Sekelsky, have been to the staff. The budget originally called for adding another second-grade teacher, but that’s been scrapped. The district will lay off three full-time non-certified staff members: the summer hours for a custodian and one half-time staff member. Several teachers and staff members have announced their retirements, and that will help the district because of the difference in salary between a long-time staff member and a new teacher. Sumpman said he has not given up on consolidating bus routes. He has been working for several weeks to find a way to consolidate at least two routes to save money and will continue to work on that even after the budget is voted on. “I am convinced I can find a way to make it work.” Ways to save If another teacher retires, and if they manage to cut a bus route, Sumpman allowed that the district might be able to restore the extra second-grade teacher originally in the budget. If they can’t, they are already making plans to redistribute the existing second-grade staff to try to reduce the student/teacher ratio. “Hopefully some of those other things will fall into place and we will be able to restore some things,” Supman said. School board member Randy Roof commented on the tough task undertaken by the budget makers. “This is something that this district has never had to do before,” Roof said. “I have to applaud you for putting together a budget that certainly not to anyone’s liking but it’s instructionally sound.”

If anyone asks for something that wasn’t budgeted, the answer is no.” Martin Supman, Hardyston’s Superintendent of Schools

This is not easy. It’s gut wrenching. There are no easy answers, and you don’t realize that until you have to do it...We’re working together for the good of the whole district.” Teacher Judy Williams

How Hardyston compares
Hardyston Township took a 22.3 percent loss in state aid, which equals a loss of $523,613 out of last year’s aid of $2,343,432.
This is the biggest loss of all the districts that send their students to Wallkill Valley High School.
The other sending districts are:
Hamburg, which lost 14.3 percent of state aid or $261,020
Ogdensburg, which lost 10 percent of its aid or $213,039
and Franklin, which was cut 11.4 percent or $387,058.
The high school district lost $718,484 out of an aid package that totaled about $5 million last year.
Hardyston Township ranks third in total aid cuts in Sussex County, behind Fredon Township, which expects to lose 39 percent of its state aid and Sparta Township, which lost 37 percent.
In the overall picture, Hardyston came in the middle of the state loss picture. Of the 581 districts listed, Harydston fell in at number 294. Above it are the 50-plus districts that lost 100 percent of their state funding, many of them located in Bergen County.
All the way at the bottom of the list is Woodbine Borough in Cape May County, which lost 2.3 percent of its aid or $77,047 out of an aid package of $3.4 million.