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All numbers are purely hypothetical at this point as the district does not have its state aid numbers and does not even know what the maximum allowable spending will be before they need to look to a second question.
It's not even clear if a separate question will be necessary.
District business administrator Karla Milanette said the estimated cash impact of the proposed school-tax hike would be available tonight when the South Orange-Maplewood Board of School Estimate meet with the district's Board of Education and administration for a budget discussion.
Horoschak acknowledged that the estimated tax impact could be perceived as "onerous" to some, but added that "the problem is not on the expenditure side."
While revenue remains flat, state and federal mandates and requirements, rarely accompanied by state or federal funding, along with collective bargaining agreements and labor market forces are pushing costs higher.
Staffing is projected to eat up $61.4 million, or 76 percent, of the proposed 2004-05 budget.
Horoschak said this district's spending is on a par with comparable districts and that teacher, support staff and administrative salaries are "at, but not above, the market. This is what we must pay to attract and retain quality staff," Horoschak said.
District officials are proposing just under $502,000 in cuts to custodial and maintenance services and earmarking almost $660,000 for technology.
Maintenance cuts would come from outsourcing 21 custodial jobs and adding two maintenance positions, one evening custodial position and one custodial secretary for a net reduction of 17 full-time equivalents (FTEs). District officials say this initiative would increase efficiency while decreasing costs but also report that a previous attempt to outsource custodial services was unsuccessful.
Adding one elementary school technology facilitator, updates to Columbia High School's television studio and Computer Aided Drafting lab, purchasing 60 computers for Columbia teachers and 24 more for middle school labs and updating the district's telephone system, network and servers represent the proposed $660,000 technology spending plan.
Additional proposed staffing and operational changes include:
* juggling administrators and eliminating one-half an administrative FTE for a savings of $166,688;
* developing and refining student schedules over the summer for a cost of $22,800;
* increasing security for a cost of $92,000;
* improvements to the fine arts program for a cost of $86,000;
* adding two special education FTEs for a cost of $148,000;
* meeting Title I school requirement to provide breakfast for students for a cost of $40,000; and
* adding one-half an English-as-a-second-language FTE, and 4.6 FTEs at Columbia for a total cost of $452,640.
All of this adds up to a net increase of $833,627, Horoschak reported.
Board of Education member Rogers Campbell, a member of the board's finance committee, took note of Horoschak's characterization of how the finance committee contributed to the development of the budget.
The finance committee helped guide the process but does not necessarily endorse the preliminary budget, Campbell said.
He also questioned Horoschak's claim that this budget represented a "systematic change" from past years.
Horoschak noted the proposal to outsource 21 custodial jobs and said, "A system such as this can only handle so much change at a time."
When Campbell asked Horoschak if he expected the Board of Education "to have the fortitude" to go to the Board of School Estimate with a 9-percent, school-tax increase, Horoschak said this was a discussion question that would be answered at a later time.
Board member Gregg Betheil questioned how the district would measure the success of its custodial outsourcing initiative. "How will we know whether or not the savings is worth releasing 21 custodians? How do we measure the success?"
Board member Brian O'Leary questioned the importance of a maintenance budget. "How do we prove that we need to keep doing everything we're currently doing?"
The district plans to continue its budget discussions in public on Feb. 23 and 26. The Board of Education is expected to approve the preliminary budget by March 8 and send it to the Essex County Superintendent by March 11. The board plans to adopt the budget by March 29. If there is a special request to raise additional taxes, the South Orange-Maplewood Board of School estimate is expected to vote on this by March 30.
Extensive information about the community's school budget situation can be found on the Board of Education finance subcommittee's Web site: http://www.somsd.k12.nj.us/finance/financehome.htm.
