UPDATED: Taxes To Rise $75, School Budget Cut $225K

School taxes will rise $75 on the average Hopatcong home assessed at $315,000 after the borough council voted to cut $225,000 from the school district's $35 million proposed budget Wednesday night.

School board President Cliff Lundin said no teachers will be lost, though four will retire. Six received reduction-in-force notices in April before the proposal, which would have raised average school taxes $109, failed by 34 votes.

The vote went 5-0 with Councilwoman Madeline McManus abstaining. A retired Hopatcong teacher, McManus said she abstained because she recently began substitute teaching in the district.

Lundin said the making the cuts, which were recommended by school Business Administrator Theresa Sierchio, "was not easy."

"There is zero room in this budget," he said. "If a boiler goes or if something happens, we do not have the funds to recover."

Superintendent Dr. Charles Maranzano said he was happy with the outcome.

"It means we can provide next year basically the same services that we provided this year," he said.

Mayor Slyvia Petillo said the council's cuts were made in concert with the school board. She commended Sierchio for finding 40 line items to reduce, such as health insurance.

"Not only did we look over the programming and personnel for the 2011-2012 school year," Petillo said, "but we also discussed the importance of making cuts that would not increase class size or reduce the teaching staff."

Supplemental student insurance cuts represented the largest amount of the $225,000 removed from the budget proposal at $40,000.

"We were paying for some supplemental insurance," Lundin said. "Most kids, in fact, are covered. So we thought if anything had to go, that had to go."

Also cut was the high school family consumer science program to make room for a state-mandated financial literacy course, which freshmen and sophomores must take next year. Wendy Wyman, who taught family consumer science, will teach the new course.

The decision came a year after the council reduced the school board's budget $730,000. That, combined with a $1.7 million state aid decrease, led to 24.5 position cuts and a slew of lost programs. The district has lost 40 teachers in two years, or "a whole school," Maranzano said.

Lundin said the cuts would also give the Board of Education no wiggle room to negotiate contracts with unions. Each of the district's employment contracts, except for administration, will have expired by June 30.

"This is a notice to our unions," Lundin said. "There are no funds available for salary increases, other enhancements or any enhancements, period. There are no funds available. Absolutely, period, definitively."

The school tax rate wasn't immediately available.