Board members considered closing the Windsor School and increasing class sizes to soften the blow on taxpayers.
By: Mark Moffa
WASHINGTON School board members last week opted not to make additional cuts in the budget that would have brought the proposed tax increase down from 26 cents per $100 of assessed property value to less than 22 cents.
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If no changes are made to the budget during a meeting next week, the school district will ask voters two questions April 16. First, taxpayers will decide whether to approve a $21.8 million budget, which would raise taxes 24 cents for each $100 of assessed property value. Then, voters will approve or reject an additional $325,200 that would raise taxes another 2 cents. The total increase would be 14 percent.
The second question is needed because those expenditures will bring the budget above the state-mandated 3 percent cap.
Out of the proposed 26-cent increase, 6 cents already was approved by voters last year in a referendum to construct a high school and increase the size of Pond Road Middle School.
The current school tax rate is $1.88 cents per $100 of assessed property value. A 26-cent increase would mean the owner of a house assessed at the township average of $177,000 would pay $460.20 more in school taxes this year, an increase from $3,327.60 to $3,787.80.
The decision to submit the $22.1 million budget to Mercer County was reached after more than three hours of discussion March 12.
Board members were considering closing the Windsor School and increasing class sizes in order to soften the blow on taxpayers. Most members, however, objected to these measures.
Board member Geoffrey Lewen said the district should stick to its policy of allowing class sizes no larger than 22 students for fourth grade and below, and no larger than 24 students for fifth though eighth grades.
By cutting half of the 10 new teaching positions originally in the budget, average class size would have grown to 22.6 students, slightly larger than the current elementary limit. The average middle school class still would have been less than 24 students.
But Mr. Lewen objected to eliminating the new teachers, saying voters should decide if they want to see larger class sizes.
"We’ve sold two expansion referendums on these principles," Mr. Lewen said of the district’s class size limits. "What has changed?"
As if answering his own question, Mr. Lewen said he suspected board members were hesitant to ask for the new teachers out of fear the budget would be rejected by voters. He suggested members were frightened by the narrow approval of a high school in December.
"If we had passed that with a healthier margin then I don’t think we’d be having this discussion right now," he said. The high school referendum passed by a 65-vote margin among 2,647 votes cast.
Mr. Lewen also said the class size estimates could be misleading because recent enrollment growth has exceeded projections.
"We historically make demographers look foolish," he said.
Board member Kevin Schick shared Mr. Lewen’s objections to the cuts.
"We’ve done a lot here to cut to as low an amount as we can," he said.
Florence Gange was the only member to object to the plan. She voted against submitting the $22.1 million budget to the county.
"I really don’t think a second question is going to fly," she said. "We do have an opportunity to tighten our belt and I think that we should do that this year."
Board President Michele Siekerka said she supported the budget.
Business Administrator Chris Mullins at the meeting said he could fit two additional teachers in the budget and still remain under the state cap, but that any additional teachers would have to be included in a second question.
The second question will ask voters for permission to hire five teachers at $40,000 each, plus allocate $57,500 in benefits for those teachers. The remainder of the question will ask for $47,700 in supplies associated with the new teachers and $20,000 for after-school co-curricular activities.
Out of the seven new teachers the board is seeking to hire, three would go to Sharon School and four would go to Pond Road. One new teacher position was cut at each of the district’s three schools.
Few residents were in attendance for the workshop. Those who spoke scrutinized the cuts that were made. One resident said the board’s class size projections were "misleading" because they did not include special education students.
Superintendent Paul Harren said they were excluded from the averages because they are not with the rest of the students for the majority of the day, but the resident noted that special education students are in regular classrooms for homeroom, lunch, recess, and "specials" such as music and art.
The district’s preliminary budget was due to county officials by Friday. The board needs to have its final budget ready by Wednesday. A board meeting and public presentation on the budget will be held at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Pond Road Middle School.
If voters do not approve the first question the budget itself the spending plan will be reviewed by the Township Committee, which could make changes.
Mr. Harren said if voters do not approve the second question there is no review procedure.
Final approval of any school budget, however, rests with the state’s commissioner of education.