Could Woodbridge school district afford to trim a bit more off the top?

by Sergio Bichao on Apr 15th | Email

With just days left before Woodbridge voters decide on the school district's $182.5 million proposed budget, Superintendent John Crowe is fighting back against criticism that the district is too top-heavy and that not enough administrators have been cut.

While the 2010-2011 spending plan calls for more than $12 million in program and job cuts, just seven of the 280 employees expected to lose their jobs are administrators. The rest are teachers, guidance counselors, secretaries, cafeteria workers and custodians.

That has led one of the six candidates seeking three seats on the Board of Education to oppose Tuesday's budget question, which seeks to raise the school tax rate by 4 percent, or by an average of $156.

“I haven't seen enough cuts in the administration,” said Tom Maras, who told parents during candidates night this month that he supported the budget, but changed his mind a few days later. “There are so many questions that to say 'yes' does not make sense to me.”

Other candidates, on record as supporting the budget, didn't return calls for comment Thursday.

Crowe says the district has cut administration continually over the years. If it doesn't appear that many administrators will be eliminated next year, that's because the district is already short-staffed, he said.

“A district our size has quite many fewer administrators than do districts that are very similar to us,” he said.

A glance at the annual New Jersey School Report Card, however, shows Woodbridge's student-to-administrator ratio is not as conservative as other nearby large districts like Edison, Piscataway, Old Bridge and Perth Amboy. In 2008, Woodbridge had 192.8 students per administrator; the state average was 159.2 students per administrator.

But Crowe says those numbers hide the fact that Woodbridge's 16 elementary schools don't have vice principals, whereas other districts do. Woodbridge's four middle schools have one vice principal.

In the proposed budget, Colonia and Woodbridge high schools will lose one of their three vice principals. John F. Kennedy High School already has just two. The savings from reducing the two non-tenured administrators would be $237,000.

“If anyone thinks that a high school the high size of ours doesn't need at least two vice principals needs to rethink what goes on in a high school,” Crowe said.

WOODBRIDGE BUDGET FACTS
• Proposed budget for 2010-11 including debt service: $182.5 million
• Current budget for 2009-10 including debt service: $184.5 million
• Proposed number of eliminated jobs: 280
• Proposed tax levy for 2010-11: $158 million
• Current tax levy for 2009-10: $152.3 million
• Proposed tax rate per $100 of assessed value: $4.67
MORE ON THE BUDGET: Woodbridge.InJersey.com/Election

The district also wants to eliminate three department heads to save $199,000 and two supervisors, which would save $150,000.

“Department heads at the high schools supervise specialized areas and they also teach,” Crowe said. District supervisors are required by state law to ensure that "curriculum is being implemented in a unified manner" throughout the district, he said.

The school district employs about 1,900 people. About 5 percent of those employees earn more than $90,000 a year, according to the DataUniverse database at MyCentralJersey.com.

Crowe said that eliminating an administrative position does not necessarily translate to savings because, depending on job history, an administrator may be "bumped" back into a teaching position at the top of the pay scale.

Crowe, who earns $187,000, said he'll forgo a 4 percent contractual raise next year. It is still not known if other administrators, who have year-to-year contracts with the district, will do the same.