Surging H.S. enrollment may bring tax hike
School officials expect the district’s tuition paid to UFRSD to go up at least $935K next year
By alison granito
Staff Writer
MILLSTONE — The growing number of students that the township will send to Allentown High School next year has the potential to cause a spike in property taxes, according to a presentation made by school officials.
Board of Education members were on hand at last week’s Township Committee meeting to update the governing body on a variety of issues facing the schools.
Board President Linda O’Reilly told officials that the board’s projections show that the number of students from Millstone who will be eligible to attend Allentown High School next year will increase by 82 students.
Millstone currently sends 449 students to the high school as part of a send-receive relationship with the Upper Freehold Regional School District (UFRSD). Those students presently comprise more than 50 percent of the high school student body.
This school year, Millstone paid UFRSD a tuition rate of $11,404 per student.
If the rate of tuition were to remain at this year’s level, O’Reilly said that the additional students that Millstone expects to send to the high school next year would increase the total tuition Millstone pays by $935,128. If UFRSD were to raise the tuition rate by the allowable maximum of 3 percent to $11,700 per student, the amount of tuition that Millstone would have to pay next year would increase by $1,109,082.
"That represents a 9-cent tax increase that we would have no control over," O’Reilly said.
However, she noted that the numbers were not concrete since some children in the current eighth-grade class may choose to attend private school.
In addition to a sharp increase in the number of students the community is sending to Allentown High School, school officials are facing a space crunch at the existing K-8 level as well.
According to figures previously provided by the school district, enrollment at the elementary and middle schools has nearly quadrupled in the past 12 years. In 1990, the district’s K-8 enrollment was 460 students vs. the current number of approximately 1,600 students.
To combat overcrowding at the middle school and elementary school levels in the near future, school officials are bringing in three temporary classrooms, housed in trailers outside the school building, on both sites next year.
In a previous interview, Superintendent of Schools Dr. William Setaro estimated that the number of trailers necessary to address the district’s surging enrollment would double by 2006.
In addition to using the trailers as a stop-gap measure, school officials are planning a referendum for the fall to ask voters for the funds to build a new middle school.
The school board has formed an ad hoc referendum planning committee, which is meeting to hammer out the specifics of a referendum plan and attempting to attach a price tag to the improvements.
The ad hoc committee’s third and final scheduled meeting is slated for Feb. 6 from 8 to 10 p.m. in the elementary school cafetorium.
At last week’s meeting, Committeeman John Pfefferkorn asked O’Reilly whether the community’s taxpayers would have to start paying the half of the debt service that they are obligated to pay on capital improvements that UFRSD makes to the high school.
Work is currently under way on a $19.5 million referendum to improve and expand UFRSD facilities, the vast majority of which is focused on the expansion of Allentown High School.
O’Reilly replied that the debt service on the UFRSD referendum would not begin to affect Millstone taxpayers until next year.
"I think it is important for this committee to look at how we’re going to help offset some of the school cost increases. If we’re looking at 9 cents just for the high school increase, we’re certainly going to be looking at a huge number when the insurance package and the regular increases come through," Pfefferkorn said, noting that the Township Committee should look at moving funds to the schools.
"This needs to be a discussion item when we talk about the budget," he added.
The Township Committee is expected to begin its budget discussions at a special meeting called for Jan. 29 at 8 p.m.