Budget Cuts will be Explained Thursday

Wayne School District officials will give a detailed presentation Thursday night on the more than $1.7 million they have been forced to cut from the district's 2011-2012 budget.

A "complete breakdown of the specific cuts" will be given, board of education President Donald Pavlak Jr. said. 

Copies of the presentation will be made available to attendees. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m.. It will be held in the council chamber at 475 Valley Road.

Residents the district's $126.6 million tax levy by approximately 100 votes in late April. Per state law, the township council reviewed the district's budget and suggested the cuts. However, they did not have to suggest any cuts. Hundreds of residents the council meeting when the cuts were announced.

Approximately $360,000 will be saved through breakage from veteran teachers retiring and incoming teachers being hired. Breakage is the salary difference between a veteran teacher and a new teacher. The amount is in addition to $610,000 the district will already be saving in breakage for the upcoming year.

Approximately $405,000 will be saved through reductions in transportation, facilities and technology equipment and $400,000 in health and prescription benefits for district employees. The district will purchase buses, and other vehicles, and computer equipment with money borrowed from the Passaic County Improvement Authority rather than lease the vehicles. The district will save $405,000 by doing it that way.

The district will also cut $110,000 from the high school budgets, $100,000 in both new textbooks and from the building services and maintenance budget.

Approximately $150,000 will be slashed from the new Math Connects program for kindergarten through fifth graders. The cut will not affect the start of that program, which will be implemented in September. The program is replacing the Everyday Math program.

An additional $125,000, $65,000 in “general administration” salaries and saving $60,000 on a new middle school math teacher, will be cut. The teacher’s salary will be funded through the No Child Left Behind Act rather than the budget.