Millstone school board reviews new budget

BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

MILLSTONE — The district will have to pay more than $1 million to place special education students out of district this year, and school officials claim that dollar amount will increase.

At the May 9 Board of Education meeting, Assistant Superintendent Mary Ann Donahue said at least three more students moving into the township will require out-of-district placement on top of the 19 special-needs children who have already been placed for the 2005-06 school year.

Although board officials do not know which school(s) two of the new students will attend, one of the children will go to Collier High School, Wickatunk section of Marlboro, where tuition costs $39,143 annually. The two others will need 12-month placement.

A total of 11 schools receive Millstone’s out-of-district students. One township student attends the Bancroft School in New Brunswick, at an annual cost of $192,938.

The average tuition for the 19 students amounts to $54,981. If the Bancroft student is not included, since that tuition is nearly four times higher than the rest, the average would be $47,317.

Business Administrator Brian Boyle said the district is reimbursed by the state for the excess cost of special education through Extraordinary Aid. Excess costs, he said, are those above $40,000 for an individual student.

Since the Legislature does not provide sufficient funding to meet all the districts’ requests for reimbursement, according to Boyle, funding is prorated using a sliding-scale formula. The state pays 60 percent of excess costs more than $40,000 and under $60,000. It pays 70 percent of excess costs that are more than $60,000 and less than $80,000, and 80 percent of excess costs more than $80,000. The resulting number is then prorated, Boyle said.

“For 2004-2005,” Boyle said, “the district’s excess costs were $274,064, and our reimbursement eligibility was $194,382. We received $110,613, as the prorating factor was .569049.”

The federal government does not reimburse districts for special education, Boyle said. However, it does provide grants to supplement the district’s efforts.

“For 2004-2005, Millstone received $376,225,” Boyle said.

Because voters did not pass the $26 million referendum on April 19, the Board of Education and the Township Committee had to review the proposed school budget and decide on cuts.

At the May 18 Township Committee meeting, officials determined that $103,812 should be cut from the proposed budget, as well as the proposed position of curriculum coordinator, at a salary of $80,953.

Board member Thomas Foley said the school could receive $200,000 in unanticipated special education fees. Due to these fees, he wanted the board to ask the Township Committee to reconsider its position regarding cuts in the school budget. He said the board had approximately $450,000 in its surplus, and that the unanticipated special education fees would make the surplus inadequate to handle any other unanticipated expenditures.

“We would have to cut programs — certainly something significant to absorb unanticipated costs,” Foley said.

Despite Foley’s arguments, Superintendent William Setaro said the board had given him no indication that it would appeal the budget as proposed by the Township Committee.

Setaro said that in his opinion, the Township Committee had spoken and that because the cuts were not drastic, he would not push to challenge them.

Board member Paula Kinsey noted that $100,000 out of a $26 million budget was not a great amount, and the township had said it would try to help recoup some of the money.

Board member Laura Dreifus said if Board of Education members were to appeal the committee’s decisions, officials could decide to increase class sizes or reduce the teaching staff. Those cuts could end up being detrimental to the district, she said.