Staff Reduction, Transportation Savings In Bernards School Budget

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Reducing staff and implementing a triple-tier bussing schedule were among the decisions the Board of Education had to make in the final 2024-25 Bernards Township school budget.

On Monday night, the Board passed the final budget of $123,317,081 for the 2024-25 school year. This is an increase of 3.691 percent or roughly $3.2 million over the 2023-24 budget of. Board member Nimish Amin was the only one to vote against the budget.

Superintendent Nick Markarian and Business Administrator James Rollo presented the final budget on Monday.

Markarian noted the Board was faced with a $6 million deficit on the revenue side in December 2023.

To close the gap, Markarian said the district cut $845,000 in salary and benefits. That cut included:

• Scaling back on school aide hours (these are not instructional aides but they do provide administrative support with cafeteria supervision or hallway supervision)
• Cut one IT position and other administrative support
• Reduced substitute teacher budget
• Did not renew third party contract for social worker services ESS (instead the district put together an in-house program with two new staff members which is a saving)
• Decreased instructional coaching services
• Eliminated unfillable part-time position

Additionally, the Board approved a later school start time and triple-tier bussing schedule for the district on March 11.

Rollo noted the district needed to save $1.3 million in the triple tiering process. The district was able to reduce tier busing from 57 buses to 34.

When the district went out to bid for the 34 buses, they received 26 buses that they were happy with and were within the budget.

The district recently went out for the 8 remaining buses, which should be returned by May 14. Those remaining buses will then hopefully be awarded at the following May Board meeting.

"We are happy with the start to get 26 of the 34 awarded and we are cautiously optimistic that we will do well on the next eight and achieve that $1.3 million in that expense reduction," said Rollo.

Included in the budget are a number of capital projects to take place this summer including:

• Ridge HVAC project (covered under a ROD grant) $924,000
• William Annin Middle School paving loop - $675,000
• District-wide flooring - $650,000

Additions to the curriculum were also included in the budget such as a new math program for grades K-5 and new electives at William Annin in Englsh Language Arts called "Creative Writing" and "Ted Talk: Amplify Your Voice" and electives at Ridge called "Honors Human Rights" and "Unified Leadership," which partners some of the general education students and special ed students.

The district is also looking to add a floater counselor for the elementary level.

Overall, the Board was happy with the final budget.

"I thought the Board and administration have done an excellent job on compromising … the way I know that is because no one was happy in the end," said Board member David Shaw.

Shaw noted the district had to compromise on issues such as school start times, taxes, cutting personnel.

"It was a lot of give and take to fill the gap," said Shaw.

Amin said he appreciated that most of the cuts being made are not teacher-related or instructional. However, he felt more should be reduced concerning administrative costs.

"Instead of doing it on a fire drill basis like we are, I think we should do it from a position of strength and use attrition when possible and take that into account for the budget going forward," said Amin in regard to administration positions.

Board Vice President Jennifer White disagreed with Amin noting that she was "pleased we are holding off as long as possible" on making administrative cuts.

"If we can hold off on additional cuts we should hold off as long as possible so we can provide the excellent education and support to the staff that we have been able to do," said White.

Looking ahead multiple Board members noted that there will be more difficult decisions as costs continue to rise.

"It will be difficult in the future," said Board President Timothy Salmon. "It is going to be difficult going forward managing expenses."

Watch the full budget presentation below (begins around the 7-minute mark):

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