Official fears school cuts Superintendent warns P'burg to prepare. District would be hit hard by shift in state funding formula. Tuesday, May 16, 2006 • By SARAH CASSI • The Express-Times PHILLIPSBURG | Superintendent Gordon Pethick warned school board members Monday night that a shift in the state funding formula could hit the district hard and force additional cuts. Pethick said state officials have indicated options include creating a more level funding formula that would no longer match poorer districts such as Phillipsburg with the state's wealthiest districts. He said the change would be a "reverse Robin Hood," where the state would shift money for poorer districts to wealthier ones. "This crisis is not just in the Abbott districts. This crisis is in education," Pethick said. "There is a point at which we can only go so far We cannot emaciate the district. We cannot take a district to the point where it cannot function." A state Assembly education committee is creating a bi-partisan task force to study state education funding. New Jersey funds schools through property taxes and state aid, but has the nation's highest property taxes, and state budget woes have led to no state aid increases for five years. Business Administrator Bill Poch said Phillipsburg receives $20 million a year in state funding to bring it in line with wealthier districts, about a third of the district's budget. Under a level-funding formula, Poch said state funding would be cut by more than half, and staff and programs positions would be reduced as a result. "We'd have no place to go but into staff," Pethick said. Last week the state Supreme Court ruled the Department of Education could impose flat funding on Abbott districts--the state's 31 poorest school systems named after the series of court cases that created them. The ruling did give districts appeal rights to request projects, staff positions or services before an impartial tribunal. Pethick said the district worked with a fiscal manager provided by the state to cut its requested supplemental funding down from $8 million to $2.6 million for its 2006-07 budget. It remains to be seen if the district will receive any of that supplemental funding. Poch said the board must approve an updated budget before the district submits it to the state by May 31 and expects to hear on any supplemental aid by June. The cuts will include keeping empty positions unfilled and the 30-plus proposed positions on hold, including security guards at the elementary schools and technology positions. Proposed programs, including an alternative education program at the elementary level, are also off the table, Poch said. Part of the $2.6 million supplemental funding left includes programs such as the summer school for the middle and high schools, which district officials considered cutting, Poch said. "We thought it was too important," Poch said. Reporter Sarah Cassi can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at scassi@express-times.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. © 2006 The Express-Times. Used with permission.