Borough Schools Get First Look at Budget Deficit

The Freehold Borough Board of Education had their first conversation on where to find additional revenue for the 2012-2013 school year.

A presentation explaining the current standing of the budget was given to the Board at the Feb. 13 Borough BOE meeting by Business Administrator and Board Secretary Patrick DeGeorge.

Although the presentation had a disclaimer explaining that it is an extremely educated guess, it is possible that Borough Schools will fall short on monetary needs for the following school year.

Since there are still many monetary figures to be finalized, DeGeorge’s presentation provided the board with three different figures; best case scenario, worst case scenario and probable figures.

“The closer we move from probable to best case, the less the deficit will be,” explained DeGeorge.

Current estimations show that the Borough School District could need as much $340,000 in additional funding for the 2012-2013 school year.  

Below is a list of areas that DeGeorge’s presentation highlighted as some places where the additional revenue could be obtained.

• Increasing property taxes
• Ask Governor for more state Aid
• Draw from fund balance
• Raise own revenue
• Reduce spending plan
• Increase shared services
• Privatizing services
• Eliminating programs and/or staff

“The quest for additional sources of revenue has been on going for years; with little to no success. Unless the Department of Education is finally able to find a way to provide the district with the additional aid they have acknowledged they know is needed, the same results are expected next year. Nonetheless the board stated that it will do everything in its power to avoid raising property taxes beyond 2%,” explained DeGeorge in an email.

Eliminating programs and/or staff was another topic that Board members voiced that they did not want to use in order to receive the additional funds from.

According to DeGeorge, each above option has been looked into, and will be continued to be explored daily in order to make sure that all options have used completely.

Govenor Christie will be giving an address on Feb. 21. Within 48-hours of that address New Jersey schools will begin to know what their state-aid figures will look like and allow New Jersey school districts to get a clearer idea of what their 2012-2013 budget will be.