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School spending plans revised
(by Tina Pappas - June 05, 2008)
With the defeat of the school budgets for West Paterson, Little Falls, Totowa and Passaic Valley High School (PVHS) on April 15, it was back to the drawing board for the school boards and their municipalities who recently approved modified spending plans.
The West Paterson school budget, which proposed an $11,983,982 tax levy referendum, was defeated by a vote of 455-581.
"We did come to an agreement with the borough council," said Thomas DiFluri, business administrator for the West Paterson Board of Education. "Between our two budgets, the tax levy was reduced by one tax point which comes to $82,900. We're going to redirect $72,900 to the town to cover part of the cost of one resource officer. Other changes entail bringing one special education student back into the district. We were able to accommodate the student in one of our programs so we saved money."
The revised spending plan entails a home assessed at $200,000 to have an increase of $88 a year in local school taxes for residents. Part of the overall decrease will show up in the municipal tax levy, added DiFluri.
The Little Falls school budget, which proposed a $12,632,383 tax levy referendum, was defeated by 12 votes, 388-400.
"We agreed along with the town council, to reduce the school budget by one tax point or $72,000," said Anthony Mistretta, business administrator for Little Falls Board of Education. "We took $25,000 out of salaries, $17,000 out of central services, $10,000 from transportation and $20,000 from employee benefits."
The revised spending plan for the township gives a home assessed at $184,000, a yearly local school tax increase of $63.15 for residents.
The Totowa school budget proposed an $11,497,357 tax levy referendum and was also defeated, by a 272-312 vote.
School Superintendent Vincent Varcadipane said the council agreed to the revisions, along with the school board at a meeting on May 13. "The budget was reduced by $50,000, which came out of the district's special education tuition," he said.
Repeated calls to obtain school taxpayer increase information to Varcadipane were not returned.
The regional high school's budget of $18,954,854 also captured a disapproving voting majority.
"All three municipalities agreed to reduce the budget by $100,000," said Dr. Viktor Joganow, PVHS superintendent. "Fifty thousand came out of teachers salaries, $25,000 came out of health benefits and $25,000 out of general teaching supplies. An agreement on the modifications was reached at our last meeting on May 13."
Paul Gerber, PVHS business administrator, detailed the breakdown for each town.
In Little Falls, the new annual increase for taxpayers on a home assessed at $175,000 is $92.75. For Totowa, the same home assessment is at a $47.25 annual increase. For West Paterson, however, there is an annual decrease of $56.00 for taxpayers for the same home assessment.
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