RIH Keeping Costs Down as it Awaits Aid Figures

With less than two weeks before its budget is due to the county, the Ramapo-Indian Hills administration is still waiting on information from the state to finalize the 2010-11 spending plan.

Until state aid figures are released, the administration and board won't know exactly how much revenue it will see over the next budget cycle, and consequently, how a possible cut in aid would affect funding decisions and the amount to be raised via taxation.

"We've been concentrating wholeheartedly on trying to put the budget together, but it's been very difficult," school business Administrator Frank Ceurvels said at Monday's meeting of the Ramapo Indian Hills school board. "I've never seen anything like this. It's difficult for me to talk about the budget when there's so much up in the air. We really have no guarantees from the state.

"We've been looking at different scenarios... trying to make arrangements based on what can possibly happen," whether that be flat or reduced aid, Ceurvels said.

Gov. Chris Christie will deliver a budget proposal on March 16 that will include details on his plans to reduce aid to school districts and municipalities, one of many austerity measures being considered to help plug a state budget hole that's been estimated at $2 billion. The RIH board and administration already received bad news from the Christie administration last month, when the governor announced plans to withhold state aid by $475 million, a move that would take $619,024 in aid to the district that was slated to be rolled into the 2010-11 budget as tax relief.

School districts must have their completed budgets into the county superintendent by March 22, leaving only days to finalize spending plans after learning of the aid awards. 

Ceurvels said the timing of the announcement could be worse, as the district isn't as reliant on state money for revenue as many of its counterparts. The current $48.6 million budget includes approximately $2.1 million from the state, "so reductions in state aid doesn't affect us as badly" as it does districts with a much larger proportion of its revenues coming from state coffers.

As it stands, the 2010-11 budget is projected to come in at approximately $49.5 million, roughly $1 million over the current budget, which can be attributed to contracted costs. "Our salary and benefits represent pretty much the majority of what that budget increase is," the administrator said, noting that wage hikes represent about $750,000 over the next budget cycle.

Still, the 2010-11 budget shows only a 2 percent increase in expenditures over the current plan, and Ceurvels noted that expenditures have increased by approximately 4 percent over the past two years.

"That's something I'm really proud of," he said.

"If we're going to lose state aid or if we're going to have money taken away from us that is indirectly going to make taxes go up more than they would under a perfect scenario, I think we can all sit here and say we've done our part.. and tried to manage our costs the best we could," Ceurvels said.

The administrator said the district has approached cost savings on both macro and micro levels, looking at everything from how to keep health insurance premiums down (slated to go up 8 percent) to limiting staffers' ability to make unlimited paper copies in the schools. 

"What we're trying to do is decrease our fixed costs, defer equipment purchases, defer anything we can defer," he said.

However, Ceurvels said the board and administration are looking at maintaining all programs and services and do not have plans to cut offerings because of cost concerns.

Superintendent Dr. C. Lauren Schoen said the administration has started to meet with community groups to disseminate information on the budget, with a public hearing scheduled for March 31 at Ramapo High School. Ceurvels said the administration has been reticent to offer detailed information in a public forum or on its Web site, as the amount to be raised by taxation is basically a moving target until state aid figures are in. Rather than give out information that very well may change within two weeks, the administration has preferred to let the public know generally about the budgetary process until the spending plan is finalized.

Voters will register their opinion on the final tax levy at the polls on April 20.