Brainstorming to Reduce School Spending

The Princeton Board of Education hosted a public forum on Tuesday night at John Witherspoon Middle School to discuss innovative ways to reduce district spending.  Due to reductions in state aid the district may face a $2 million budget shortage in the upcoming year.   The Board of Education intends to factor the community’s cost-cutting suggestions into its budget, which will be drafted within the next two weeks.    

“We’re here to ask what you know from your organizations, from your professional worlds, from your observations, about ways that we can capture dollars and minimize any further diminishment in what we have in opportunities for our kids,” District Superintendent Judith Wilson said to an audience of roughly 40 community members.  

In 2010, the school district eliminated 16.5 faculty positions, privatized night custodians and cut several co-curricular programs, among other reductions.   The board sponsored last night’s meeting to discuss ways to not only reduce district spending but to make the quality of education “strong, if not stronger” than in previous years, said Wilson.  

Several community members came to the front of the room to share their ideas, including Township resident Henry Singer.  “With regards to soliciting and processing ideas for revenues, in my organization we use something called ‘ideation.’ That says that not only can people contribute ideas but the broader audience can add to those ideas, refine those ideas,” he said.  “We can use broader knowledge of the community in a collaborative way.”  

The concept of ideation reflected the theme of the night: community collaboration to solve local issues.  

“We have a desire to include the community in the decision making process that they rely on,” said Andrea Spalla, recently instated board member.  “Educating people is part of the process—it’s valuable for people to hear.”  

In the spirit of ideation, Chairman of the Princeton Township Environmental Commission Matthew Wasserman suggested that the district should invest in sustainability.  Solar panels and recycling go into saving dollars for the community, he said.  

While Wasserman’s suggestion intended to conserve money, Sharon Cobb took a different approach to alleviating the district’s budget shortage.

As the President of the Princeton Education Foundation, Cobb reminded the community that the foundation accepts donations that go directly into funding school programs.  Since its creation, the foundation has raised $500,000 for “capital improvements, educational programs and teacher support,” according to the PEF website.  

Other ideas discussed were: expanding Target card and Amazon.com school benefits, reconfiguring bus schedules to maximize efficiency, renting out school space for outside events and increasing local taxes.  

While Board President Rebecca Cox mentioned that several of these ideas had been discussed in previous meetings, she said, “A terrific suggestion was ideation—that people can build on other proposals.”  

Board member Tim Quinn expanded on Cox’s point.

“The challenge is ‘ideation’ and our responsibility is to sort through and decide which ideas have already been discussed, which are applicable, which are doable, which are worthy of future investigation,” he said.  

After a series of suggestions, however, the forum morphed into a question-and-answer session with the Board.  

One community member asked how the health care bill affects next year’s budget.  Another citizen asked how the consolidation of the Borough and Township may benefit the district.  

The Board responded that the health care bill will not alter the services or costs of operations but it will give the students better in-school health care.  The consolidation of the Township and the Borough would have no effect on the funding of the district because it would not change the revenue or the expenditures of the district, but the idea of consolidating multiple school districts has been discussed.

The most contentious issue of the night revolved around the issue of charter schools.  In New Jersey, charter schools are locally funded, so the regional school district loses money whenever a child chooses to attend the charter school rather than the public school.  Earlier that day, Governor Chris Christie had announced the approval of 23 new charter schools in the state.  

Princeton is currently home to the Princeton Charter School and another Charter school—Princeton International Academy Charter School—is slated to open in September.  

One community member stressed the idea of “community responsibility” and advised the school board to inform parents that sending their kids to charter schools takes money away from the schools.  

This suggestion was followed by applause.  

Charles Kalmbach, director of the board’s finance committee, steered the conversation back on topic during the last ten minutes of the meeting.  

Last minute suggestions included searching for grant money to improve district sustainability.    

“We are in an arena where we are fighting to maintain opportunities for children, children who only have one chance to go through the school system,” said Superintendent Wilson.  “They don’t get to come back to 3rd grade in a decade to see if we can do it better for them.”  

As for next year’s fiscal outlook, Wilson said “I think that it’s approachable, addressable.  There are measures we can take to minimize the impact of this tide—but, we cannot stop the tide.” 

About the Author

Lauren Wyman

Princeton University, Class of '14

Lauren Wyman is a member of the Princeton University Class of '14, with a  major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  She is from Cleveland, Ohio,  and her work has appeared in her high school newspaper, the Beachcomber, and in the NASA Glenn Research Center Internship Newsletter, the Glenn Gazette.