well parents in East Orange are demanding answers after the school board last week revealed the district is facing an $8 million budget shortfall they said they weren't aware of at the beginning of the year and abruptly announced layoff notices will go to 93 employees that includes 71 in school staff positions and four District workers it came as a shock to teachers they called out in Mass for two straight days forcing the district to hold half-day classes now the Department of Education says the district violated State Rules by failing to notify the department of its financial crisis so what happened East Orange superintendent Dr Christopher Irving is with me to hopefully answer that question uh welcome to you I want to say thank you for being willing to come in and talk about this in person I'm sure it's been a hectic week for you when did you first learn of this budget Gap so we had a feeling that uh something was uh challenging relative to the budget sometime mid- August um you know when I came on board in July 1 it was clear you know when I entered the district there were certainly budget challenges when I arrived you know the district already had a hiring freeze in place had a spending freeze in place uh and the request to release those freezes were all tied to the solvency of the budget uh and so uh my team came in we started to do our own assessment and we started to realize really quickly that what we budgeted for um did not match uh the amount of expenditures that we were going to have you know as we rolled over to the year uh and it wasn't until after the 1st September payroll that we realized that if we left everything where it was if all expenses remain where they were we're going to be short at the end of the year why did it take to getting to that September payroll right I mean students right now they're in their second month of school why wasn't this visible why weren't these you know red flags on the budget visible before the school year started yeah I can't speak to what happened last year as I just indicated I started uh July 1 uh but what was clear to me uh is that you when you factor in the first payroll uh and you roll that over the course of you know 12 24 pay Cycles um you begin to add up really quickly um in forecast what where you're going to be financially at the end of the year and most districts want to have you know you want to fall you know you know slightly underneath your your budget so you can roll those funds to next year and use them as a carryover um it was clear to us that we were we not going to have any you know carryover for that matter uh and in thinking about our kids and the solvency of our district and the fact that you know East AR has had these budget issues for the last two or three years uh the decision was made you know to um you know make the difficult decision you know relative to uh you Staffing was it mismanagement by the previous superintendent the previous superintendent was it a lack of oversight from the board I mean people want to know who's to blame here yeah um I think it's easy you know for us to point fingers um and want to and I hear that and I understand that um what I concerned about is moving forward and focusing on our children what I will say is that I don't think uh we we properly planned efficiently for the future um there was a transition between the prior Administration and mine um and uh you know obviously um that information was not translated or communicated or or understood you know efficiently relative to our expenses and how that was going to impact our budget for this year uh and then you know I walk in and I come in um you know wanting to move the district forward um and carry on uh and then we find ourselves um you know at a loss um or projected loss for that matter be very clear about that projected loss in recognizing that we had to do something and I want to be clear um if we did nothing uh at the end uh of this year we would have been short it would not made payroll and so and how much because a couple of different numbers have been floating around I looked at the budget it said that there was a $25 million overrun due to salary but your office and the mayor's office told us that that was uh realized $8 million so what's the exact budget the real number is about between 7even eight million um and so that 25 you're speaking about you know I think that number comes from the fact that if we had kept all the staff because right now I want to be very clear uh in August when I realized something was up um we put a freeze on hiring and if we left every position that we had advertised you know on the books but you had already hired teachers in July who are now going to be laid off in December that is correct you're absolutely correct and so when I lifted that freeze when I lifted the hiring freeze from the year before um I did that under the assumption that the budget was solvent you know that it was prudent and again I've never walked into a district where you know there were issues relative you know that just level discrepancies you know over the course of that time period And so when we realized that something was off we had to put a stop to it right away so we did a hiring freeze uh but if we had left everything on the table we would have been short you know 25 million luckily you know that 25 million didn't does not exist uh but the real issue is about $78 million where did the money go was it lack of state aid Cuts in state aid I mean parents want to know where is this money yes so it's it's about budgeting I want to be very clear about this it's about budgets um and how we anticipate revenue and expenditures and I think what we did not do appropriately U moving from last year to this year is we did not anticipate how much costs will you know will rise right I want to be very clear um health insurance you know January our health insurance cost are going to go up to 20% uh our cost for transportation have gone up our cost for food service has come up our cost for out of District placements and so when you're anticipating those expenses you got to be realistic sure and you normally base them off of you know a trend of what you've seen in the prior years um we we we under we undershot that I think um very quickly um obviously parents are upset you know this what can you tell them to assure them uh that their children's education isn't going to be affected here so I appreciate you asking that question I want to be clear um the action we took did not affect a in school classroom teacher what we are doing is we're taking our best but they did have two half days so their school days were affected well well I want to be clear uh in reference to the action taken by the board on Wednesday that action involved taking our best and brightest teachers uh and in challenging them to come back into the classroom and work with our students and as an urban District as a stu as a district that is you know in need of always student Improvement uh we have to look at our best and brightest and look at the investment and the work that we're putting in and trying to get an even greater yield and so in looking at the model we had relative to our academic model of the coaches and the ancillary supports that we had um you know they're not mandated you know by code and so we had to recognize that if we had to cut anywhere we need to start there uh and make sure that those folks are helping support our class and so uh I want to just clear up you know classroom classroom teachers are being cut no no classroom teachers are being cut you know in this plan what is happening is teachers who are in the uh you know coaching ranks are bumping back into the classroom and they are bumping non tenear teachers back out of the classroom as a result of tenure rights and as a of bump bumping rights that they have um the state says that you all needed to notify them more quickly about being in the red here were you not aware of that state rule why didn't you let the state know that this was coming sure so I work for the state of New Jersey um you know I served under you know this Administration for the last two years and I know the law uh so if you are running a deficit or you have a deficit you need to you know let the state know what we did uh was to heed that off uh and ensure that we did not run into one and so I think there's a discrepancy between the two of us with regard to how we interpreted this uh we have our attorneys you know reaching out to the state to clarify the district position um but if we did not do anything we would have been in the position where we need to notify the state uh but we did this to not be in that position Dr Irving I want to thank you again for coming in I know it's been a really challenging week for all of you so thank you for coming in and getting on the record with us for the cand