Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • April 3, 2013 Waldwick Waldwick school officials last week said the 2013-14 school budget honors the commitment they made to residents last year when they moved the school election to November and abolished the public vote on the school budget. The budget adopted last week is within the 2 percent cap imposed by the state. Honoring that commitment has a cost, said Board President Patty Levine. Some programs were cut from the new budget, and further reductions will have to be made in future years, she said. “It’s not easy for the district. It’s quite different from previous years. We have the 2 percent cap and rising costs are out of our control. That defines our challenges,” said trustee Dominic Novelli. “We are doing the best we can to put our district in the best fiscal position to address the goals of the district to the best of our ability given the many constraints. The 14 percent health benefits increase is a manacle on already,” he added. The $29,023,397 total budget is down $236,146, a .81 percent reduction from the current year’s budget. This is accomplished in part by a more than $1 million decrease in capital outlay, which this year was used for building improvements related to the all-day kindergarten. The new budget maintains $676,384 in the capital account, School board makes cuts to stay within cap most of it earmarked for boiler replacement at the high school. Some savings were also realized from refinancing outstanding bonds. The $26,308,871to be raised by taxation is up $561,225, a 2.18 percent increase, a cap allowance based on enrollment variations. The district has 1,631 students enrolled. A house assessed at $416,000, the borough’s average, will pay an additional $139 a year in school taxes only. The budget includes an additional 1.5 teaching positions to handle all-day kindergarten for the first time next school year. Cut from the budget were middle school sports, with the exception of track, for a savings of $40,000. School Business Administrator John Griffin said these were sports already offered at the recreation level. Novelli said cutting freshman level teams or charging a fee for team participation had been considered instead, but rejected. Resident Barbara Moran said recreation sports could not compare to school sports and suggested increasing class size to make up the shortfall. Superintendent Dr. Patricia Raupers said $18,000 from her office budget had been reallocated to athletics. “Our first priority is the classroom, class size and teachers,” said Dr. Raupers. She said every budget line had been cut 8 percent and her own office budget had been reduced a total of 30 percent to make up for shortfalls in other areas. “If we get money, I’d rather get the aides back instead of sports,” said trustee Dawn Monaco. Fourteen hourly classroom aides had their time reduced to less than 26 hours per week each so that they will no longer be eligible for health and dental benefits. This will save $205,000 a year, according to Griffin. Raupers said they and the 16 full-time aides would be reassigned to cover the students with the greatest need. Seven or eight clubs at the high school with minimal participants were also eliminated. Waldwick Education Association President Joseph Kelly asked why the association had not been included in the budgetary process as had been the case in the past. “I am disappointed we were not included early on. Perhaps we could have helped,” he said. He suggested a ballot question on the middle school athletics. He said that perhaps $30,000 could be raised independently for sports. “We didn’t want to raise taxes higher,” Levine said. She said that the budget details would be worked on in the coming months and some changes could still be made within the total budget amount.