See election results athopewellvalleynews.com Tuesday night
By: Ruth Luse
On Tuesday, Hopewell Valley voters will go the polls to cast ballots on two 2002-2003 school spending proposals.
In addition, Hopewell Township voters will select four members of the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-9 p.m. at the Valley’s 10 school district polling places.
Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township and Pennington voters will be asked to vote on two budget questions:
The proposed $49.8 million base school budget.
The $292,500 separate ballot question that would fund new staff positions at the high school, middle school and elementary levels. Specifically, the second question includes $50,000 for a new guidance counselor at Central High School; $22,000 for half-time technology teacher at Timberlane Middle School; $32,500 for a half-time learning disability teaching consultant at Timberlane; and, at the elementary level, $44,000 for a world language teacher, $52,000 for two half-time Reading Recovery teachers and $52,000 for two half-time basic skills teachers.
The separate question also contains $40,000 to cover the benefits for the positions.
The base budget plan represents an increase of $4.1 million (or 8.1 percent) over the current year’s budget. If voters pass the budget Tuesday, local taxes will fund $44.9 million of the budget. Of the $44.9 million, $3.7 million is for debt service, which is not subject to voter approval.
According to school officials, key factors in the budget hike over last year are a continuing enrollment increase, the costs associated with opening Stony Brook Elementary School in Brandon Farms in September and a continuing increase in the cost of providing state- and federal-mandated special education services.
According to business administrator John Nemeth, passage of the proposed budget (not including the separate question) would have the following effects on local school tax rates:
A 9-cent increase in the tax rate, to $2 per $100 of assessed property value in Hopewell Borough. This means the owner of a borough property assessed at $200,000 would see school taxes go from $3,820 this year to $4,000 next year.
An 18-cent increase in the tax rate, to $2.11 per $100 of assessed property value in Pennington Borough. The owner of a Pennington property assessed at $200,000 would see school taxes go from $3,860 annually to $4,220.
A 2-cent decrease in the tax rate to $1.62 in Hopewell Township, due to a rapid influx of new tax ratables. For a property assessed at $200,000, the tax would drop from the current $3,280 to $3,240.
The different tax rates for the three municipalities stem from a state mandate to apply an equalization formula that takes into account disparities between the assessed and market values of properties in each town, school officials have said.
The proposed base budget contains money for new recess equipment at Timberlane Middle School, including a new basketball court that would be built near the school’s cafeteria. The money would be taken from the district’s capital reserve fund. There was $85,000 for this recess equipment in the defeated March 12 Back Timberlane referendum. The new cost for the equipment is $125,000 because "economies of scale" have been lost now that the equipment is no longer part of the larger Back Timberlane project, Robert Sopko, superintendent of schools, said recently.
The base budget also includes 28.22 full-time equivalent new positions, 12.05 of them at the Stony Brook Elementary School. Ninety percent of the positions at the new school have been filled by voluntary transfers from existing school in the district. The new positions in the budget include teachers, administrators, custodians, bus drivers and office personnel.
If the base budget and the second $292,500 question are both approved by voters, the tax rate would increase by 10 cents in Hopewell Borough instead of 9 cents. In Hopewell Township, approval of both the base budget and second question would result in a 1-cent drop in the tax rate, instead of a 2-cent reduction. In Pennington, the school tax rate would increase by 18 cents if the second question is approved and 18 cents if it is not.
State aid to school districts is frozen at last year’s levels. This will cost the Valley about $300,000 in state aid this year, Dr. Sopko said recently.
Seeking re-election to three-year terms on the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education are Hopewell Township incumbents Edward Gainsborg of Washington Crossing-Hopewell Road, William Hills of Elden Way and Carl Swanson of Lambertville-Hopewell Road. They are running unopposed.
Two residents of Brandon Farms, Lisa Marin Main of Chicory Lane and Stacey P. Simon of Navesink Drive, are running for the new Hopewell Township seat, which was created as a result of the 2000 Census. The winner will serve a one-year term. In the April 2003 election, this new seat will be filled for a three-year term. At that time, Pennington Borough, which has two seats now, will lose one.
Neither Pennington nor Hopewell Borough have school board races this year.
Polling places Tuesday are:
District 1 for Hopewell Township general election Districts 1, 10 and 11: Mercer County Vo-Tech, "A" Lobby, 129 Bull Run Road.
District 2 for Hopewell Township general election Districts 2 and 3: Union Fire Co. auditorium, Route 29, Titusville.
District 3 for Hopewell Township general election District 4: Timberlane Middle School, main hallway, Timberlane Drive.
District 4 for Hopewell Township general election District 5: HVRSD Administration Building Board Meeting Room, 425 S. Main St., Pennington.
District 5 for Hopewell Township general election District 6: Hopewell Elementary School, East Prospect Street entrance, Hopewell.
District 6 for Hopewell Township general election Districts 7 and 9: Hopewell Township Municipal Building auditorium, 201 County Route 546, Titusville.
District 7 for Hopewell Township general election District 8: HVRSD Administration Building Board Meeting Room, 425 S. Main St., Pennington.
District 8 for Pennington general election District 1: Pennington Borough Hall, 30 N. Main St., Pennington.
District 9 for Pennington general election Districts 2 and 3: Senior Citizens Center, 393 Reading St., Pennington.
District 10 for Hopewell Borough general election Districts 1 and 2: Hopewell Railroad Station, 2 Railroad Place, Hopewell.