Remember that extra $87 million in state aid to schools that Gov. Chris Christie touted in his budget speech earlier this week? Good.
Now forget it. Verona isn’t getting any.
The governor said in his speech that the money was going to be split among 378 public school districts and that no K-12 district would get any less school aid this year. But he didn’t say who would be getting more.
The state Department of Education has just released a list of the lucky 378: Essex County’s so-called Abbott Districts are getting the bulk of the $4,309,191 that the governor is sending north. The Belleville and Bloomfield districts are getting $500,000 extra each, an increase of 2% and 2.5% respectively. Verona is getting nothing, leaving our aid at last year’s $843,727.
“The aid, as we expected, is flat to last year, which is about 50% less than our pre-2010 level,” Board of Education John Quattrocchi commented by email. “Even then, we have never been funded at the state’s legislated levels. NJ continues to rank just off the bottom of state funding for education, across the nation. This will continue to stress the property tax payers in our state.”
|
FY13 Total K-12 State Aid |
Proj. FY14 Total K-12 State Aid |
Aid Diff (FY14-FY13) |
|
| District Name | |||
| BELLEVILLE TOWN |
25,130,065 |
25,630,065 |
500,000 |
| BLOOMFIELD TWP |
20,199,014 |
20,699,014 |
500,000 |
| CALDWELL-WEST CALDWELL |
961,290 |
961,290 |
0 |
| CEDAR GROVE TWP |
723,287 |
723,287 |
0 |
| EAST ORANGE |
176,635,492 |
177,959,050 |
1,323,558 |
| ESSEX CO VOC-TECH |
20,585,108 |
20,585,108 |
0 |
| ESSEX FELLS BORO |
94,756 |
94,756 |
0 |
| FAIRFIELD TWP |
296,821 |
296,821 |
0 |
| GLEN RIDGE BORO |
720,471 |
720,471 |
0 |
| IRVINGTON TOWNSHIP |
111,604,784 |
112,230,897 |
626,113 |
| LIVINGSTON TWP |
2,416,835 |
2,416,836 |
1 |
| MILLBURN TWP |
1,882,982 |
1,882,982 |
0 |
| MONTCLAIR TOWN |
6,586,651 |
6,586,651 |
0 |
| NEWARK CITY |
714,315,679 |
714,315,679 |
0 |
| NORTH CALDWELL BORO |
220,388 |
0 |
|
| NUTLEY TOWN |
6,921,851 |
6,921,852 |
1 |
| CITY OF ORANGE TWP |
71,995,702 |
73,355,220 |
1,359,518 |
| ROSELAND BORO |
268,042 |
268,042 |
0 |
| SOUTH ORANGE-MAPLEWOOD |
4,075,898 |
4,075,898 |
0 |
| VERONA BORO |
843,727 |
843,727 |
0 |
| WEST ESSEX REGIONAL |
996,142 |
996,142 |
0 |
| WEST ORANGE TOWN |
6,809,707 |
6,809,707 |
0 |
| TOTAL |
1,174,284,692 |
1,178,593,883 |
4,309,191 |
The announcement means that Verona Superintendent Steven A. Forte needs to pare about $200,000 from the budget before next Tuesday’s special meeting of the Board of Education. The BOE had been sounding grim on this year’s budget even before the governor’s decision, as you can hear in the video of the meeting below. Tuesday’s special meeting will start at 8 p.m.