Middletown Board of Ed Officials React to State Aid

There’s been a bit of good budget news for the Middletown Township school district.

Board of Education members were happy to hear, after Gov. Chris Christie gave his tightening-the- state-purse-strings budget speech on Tuesday, that the district’s schools state aid for the 2011-2012 spending plan will increase by $1.4 million over last year’s figure.

“Last year school districts saw cuts in their funding because our state was facing a fiscal emergency,” Gov. Christie said in his address. “Today, because of the hard and necessary choices we have made, I am pleased to report we are able to provide an increase of $250 million in school aid. This will allow every district in the state to receive increased aid.”

Of the $250 million, Monmouth County got more than $16 million.

The news of the district-by-district aid particulars came on Wednesday on the heels of an initial Middletown schools budget preparation meeting that was convened the night before.

Board member Christopher Aveta broached the subject, announcing that the aid figure represents a “one percent (increase) of (the entire 2010-2011) year’s spending.”

There will be another board budget meeting on Feb. 28 and then a tentative, itemized budget will be submitted to the county on March 4, board member Joan Minnues pointed out.  By March 22, the finalized budget, that the board will present to the public for its, vote must be approved by the county.

Public hearings on the budget can then be held until March 29, the latest.  Board of Education elections, in which budgets are voted on, will be held on April 27 this year, rather than the usual third Tuesday of the that month.

Somewhat expected, after hearing what the governor had to say in his budget speech, the news was still good since last year many schools budgets throughout the state were slashed. The governor said that those budget-lopping decisions made over the last year allowed for some room for the spending plans to grow a little this year.

While he said in his speech that the news to up state aid overall was news he was happy to impart, Gov. Christie also cautioned that “money alone is not the answer. If it was we would not be spending over $17,600 per pupil in New Jersey and still have over 100,000 students trapped in 200 failing schools.”

He also reiterated his plan to reform the educational system by revamping what he feels is a critically remiss tenure policy that protects ineffective teachers and eats up taxpayer money spent on them and their benefits while the good go too unnoticed.

“The need for reform, of course, is more urgent than ever,” he said. “This is the third big challenge we must address this year. We need to reward excellent teachers, put an end to automatic tenure, and give parents trapped in failing schools a choice for a better future for their children. Once and for all, we must reward excellence and there must be consequences for failure. This is the way it is all across America – we must finally bring it to all of New Jersey’s classrooms.”

Aware of the “variety of proposals are in play that would significantly change the nature of tenure and employment rights of teachers,” Middletown Board President Donlon said. He sees the education reform future as one that will “definitely be an interesting time not just in Middletown, but throughout the state.”

Click on the highlighted text to view Middletown’s aid statistics on the state Department of Education Web site.