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Gannett State Bureau 'AMID SPENDING CUTS IS AN EXTRA $77M FOR PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS' "...Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said $52 million will expand existing programs for 3- and 4-year-olds in the so-called Abbott districts. Another $25 million will be dangled as an incentive.." to help district move forwad with their preschool initiatives.
STAR LEDGER, 3-12-0,'Stimulus boosts N.J. school aid...Federal money lets Trenton send $304M more to districts'
"...Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said New Jersey schools fared far better than those in other states...The balance of districts received no less than what they received last year, something one official termed "a relief." The increase to education -- at a time when most other departments in state government are being cut -- was possible only by using about $1 billion in "stabilization" aid provided by the federal stimulus bill.
"There are very few items in the state budget that will be even flat," said Lynn Strickland of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, a group of about 100, largely suburban districts. "Education does stand out."
Asbury Park Press, 3-12-09, 'No decrease in school aid
Despite budget cuts, funding to increase for many districts'
No decrease in school aid
Despite budget cuts, funding to increase for many districts
By JOSHUA RILEY, JIM McCONVILLE
and HARTRIONO B.
The state Education Department announced Wednesday that no school district will receive less state aid — and many will see an increase — for the next school year, despite news Tuesday that the state's overall budget for the next fiscal year is proposed at its lowest level in years.
Nearly a third of all districts statewide will see an increase in aid for the 2009-10 school year. In Monmouth and Ocean counties, 22 districts will receive about $6 million combined in aid increases, for many of them a 5 percent hike.
Of all the districts receiving more funding, the Freehold Regional High School District is expected to receive the highest dollar-amount increase, $2,533,935, or 5 percent, for total aid of $53,212,627.
In all, the Department of Education's budget will increase by $300 million, half of which is budgeted as direct state aid to districts. During a news conference Wednesday, Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy praised Gov. Jon S. Corzine's aid allotment, which she said "clearly protects the education of our children."
Davy said the newest funding formula decides which districts are to receive additional aid in this budget.
Factors that could contribute to one district receiving a substantially higher amount of funds than another include attempting to increase funding for districts the state believes have been under-funded — districts that spent less than the level proscribed by the state as adequate for their type and the needs of their schoolchildren, Davy said.
Many local school officials, no longer fearful that a financial rug will be pulled out from under them in this state budget, said they are happy to be receiving any increase in aid.
Union Beach and Keyport in Monmouth County's Bayshore area will receive 5 percent increases.
Union Beach, which has a kindergarten-to-eighth grade school, will receive a total of $8,709,240, a $414,726 increase. Special-education aid accounts for $649,029, and transportation is $199,319 of that figure.
Union Beach School Superintendent Arthur John Waltz said he is pleased with the aid allocation, and noted that the district has demonstrated tight fiscal management of its funds.
"Because we've been fiscally prudent and we are under adequacy, they've increased our state aid $414,726 for the 09-10 school year," Waltz said. "We are very happy about it. Year in and year out, we're always trying to return money to the taxpayers.
"My board of education is very prudent and holds me to a tight level for being fiscally responsible," Waltz said. "When you look at it, it's everybody's hard work, collaboratively working together to keep costs down and have a realistic per-pupil cost. In return, now the state recognizes this. We're very happy about it."
And Keyport, a kindergarten-to-12th-grade district, is set to receive $5,720,292 in aid, a $272,395 increase. Of that aid figure, $515,405 is earmarked for special-education aid and $243,055 for security.
Keyport Superintendent of Schools C. Dan Blachford also said his district is pleased with the additional state funding.
"We are supportive of the New Jersey (Education) Department's efforts to provide adequate state aide to school districts," Blachford said. "The federal and state governments have underfunded special-education aid for a number of years, so we are glad for any increases.
"Keyport has always been a fiscally conservative district, and we will continue to be very careful with the taxpayers' money," Blachford added. "Even though these figures look encouraging, we need to see how much money could be cut in our No Child Left Behind and IDEA grants."
State aid for the Plumsted school district will increase by 5 percent as well, or $559,843, to $11,756,712.
Joanna Barlow, president of the Plumsted Board of Education, said that the news came at an opportune time, as the district is in the final stages of preparing its 2009-10 budget.
"We'll see how the increase in state aid affects our budget," Barlow said.
Plumsted, in the northwest corner of Ocean County, is a kindergarten-to-12th-grade district, educating students in two grade schools, a middle school and a high school.
