School district's woes point to rising 'tax resistance'

Highlighting what education officials say is a growing tension between New Jersey's rising school costs and the property taxes that pay for them, a South Jersey school district's failed attempt to raise property taxes to plug a huge budget gap could prompt widespread layoffs.

While the Willingboro school district's financial collapse was caused by management miscues, its plight has caught the attention of lawmakers and school officials who say New Jersey leans too heavily on local property taxpayers to support public schools.

"These kind of things are really exacerbated in the condition we are under with school funding," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. "Property taxpayers are overwhelmed, while state [formula] aid has not been increased for five years."

Willingboro school officials Tuesday hoped to sell residents on a $400-per-household property tax hike to cover a $4.7million budget shortfall for the school year that ended last June. The gap, caused by accounting mistakes, cost the former superintendent his job.

Voters, however, rejected the proposal, 3,693 to 1,344.

School Superintendent Melindo Persi said yesterday he plans to send layoff notices to 100 of the district's 900 workers as early as next week to help shave costs by $1.5 million. He says as many as 500 workers could lose their jobs unless more money is forthcoming.

Persi hopes the state Department of Education will force Willingboro to raise its property tax rate, or state lawmakers will steer emergency aid to the Burlington County district, which enrolls 5,500 students in 11 schools.

"People come into town and the sun's shining, the grass is cut, the kids are in school ... but essentially we're bankrupt," said Persi.

Persi says Willingboro's problems arose because former Superintendent Alonzo Kittrell hired 22 more teachers than the adopted budget allowed for, and overspent accounts for health benefits and special education by millions of dollars.

Kittrell said yesterday a faulty accounting system led him to believe that, until last April, the district was operating at a surplus.

"I was trying to do things for the kids in Willingboro that other districts were doing," he said. "I thought we had the money."

Kittrell said the school board failed to address the problem last spring, when he told its members they faced a shortfall. He unsuccessfully sought a seven-year loan from the state against future state aid payments to balance the books.

Education advocates and lawmakers say Willingboro's crisis could point toward greater problems. The key source of school funding is property taxes, which have risen 29 percent over the last four years and are the highest in the nation. Gov. Jon Corzine wants a special session of the state Legislature to address the issue.

"I see it as a sign of the times and the issue of property taxes and the friction between property taxes and school costs," said Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. "You're going to see a lot more of that."

Willingboro was one of three districts to suffer defeats at the polls Tuesday.

Voters in Clifton and Woodstown-Pilesgrove also rejected proposals to finance school construction projects worth a total of $85 million. Five other districts, including Monroe, West Windsor-Plainsboro and Watchung Hills, approved plans to raise a total of $78.4 million for construction work.

Willingboro is the first community in at least a decade to seek voter approval for a loan to cover operating expenses, rather than building costs, the New Jersey Schools Boards Association said.

Spending in the district last year averaged $8,834 per pupil, ninth-lowest among the 104 districts of similar size in the state, the Department of Education's Comparative Spending Guide shows.

A bill that would have steered $8 million in special aid to Willingboro was introduced but was not acted on during the legislative session that ended earlier this month. A similar bill has been introduced for the new session.