'Dire Situation': $5M Gap In Bernards Township School Budget

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Later school start times and tiered bussing is being strongly considered by the Bernards Township Board of Education(BOE) who are wrestling with a "huge, huge" gap in its upcoming budget.

"I'm not quite sure that everybody really, really understands the dire situation that we are in in terms of the budget. It is no longer just about getting the kids the sleep that they need. That may have been what started our discussion years ago but that is not where we are today," said Board Vice President Jennifer White at the Feb. 26 BOE meeting. "Getting the kids extra sleep is 100 percent a benefit of switching the school times but this is being driven by the fact that we have a huge, huge gap that we need to close. And one of the ways to do that is by changing the transportation."

Board President Timothy Salmon said the Finance Committee went over the projected budget and the district is $5 million short on the revenue side related to their projected expenses.

Looking at transportation, if the district switched to double-tiering bussing they would save $600,000 and with triple-tiering they would save $1.4 million.

"The biggest drivers of the budget were transportation… that was an enormous driver. It went up over almost 27 percent since last year," said Board member Keith Molinari.

The second largest driver was out-of-district tuition, which Molinari said went up more than 33 percent.

"There was a lot of stuff that was outside of purview to control. That is why we are looking at the different bussing tierings which is within our purview," said Molinari.

The consensus among Board members was that tiered bussing would have to be an option.

"I think for me my decision is between double and triple tiers. But not doing nothing. Because that is not going to be an option with where our finances are," said Molianri.

During the Board meeting, many students and coaches from the swim team expressed their disapproval of later school start times due to the impacts on sports and club activities.

"If you are looking to help the students you have to listen to them. The parents have said that they don't want the start times to change. The teachers have said this and most importantly the students have said they don't want this change," said one Ridge High School student. "Many of us are here tonight to advocate for what the students want."

A Ridge High School senior said that pushing back the starting time of school "is not beneficial because students would still go to bed later and homework would just be pushed back."

White noted that the Board's decision on school start time and bussing will not make everybody happy.

"There is going to be a decision that hopefully we can all share in the pain, for lack of a better word, but we're going to have to do something and we don't want to impact programs as much as we can. So we have to look at other ways to sustain this incredibly wonderful education that our kids get in this district," said White. "But we are past the point where we can’t do anything. We have no choice."

Board Member Nimish Amin noted that they tried to minimize the cuts to instructional staff and instead focus on administrative roles that could be resigned and the transportation to save the most rather than cut instructional time or raise taxes any more than necessary.

Board member Janice Corrado asked the community to be cognizant of what the district provides and also when the district isn't able to provide everything.

"We need the community to ride that out with us," said Corrado. "We need to pull together and do this together as a community."

Since the meeting on Thursday, Bernards Township Schools learned they are expected to get $883,861 more than last year in school aid from New Jersey as part of the latest state budget proposal. Read More: Bernards Township Schools Will Get More State Aid For 2024-25

In 2024, Bernards Township schools received $7,379,157; next year, the district is slated to receive $8,263,018. This is an 11.98 percent increase.

"We are very appreciative of additional funding to help support our efforts to maintain programs and services in a climate where rising costs typically outpace increases in revenue," said Bernards Township Superintendent Nick Markarian to Patch.

A budget presentation taking into account the state aid numbers along with a discussion and decision on transportation bus tiers and school start times are set for the next BOE meeting on Monday, March 11.

Have a news tip? Email [email protected].