Flat aid may drive up taxes

State funding fails to keep pace with rising enrollment

By: Sharlee Joy DiMenichi
   An enrollment increase and stagnant state aid in 2003-2004 could mean an increase in school taxes.
   Assistant Superintendent for Business Jeff Scott said this week that frozen state aid and an expected 361 additional students next year means the state will be contributing 7 percent less per student in the coming year, leaving the district to make up for the shortfall through other sources of revenue.
   School board members, however, said they are confident they can keep any tax increase associated with the 2003-2004 budget to single digits. Part of the shortfall could be covered by use of surplus and an increase in the amount of taxable property in the township.
   The school board is anticipating introducing its spending plan Feb. 24, Mr. Scott said. School board President Harry Delgado said the board’s Budget Committee was to scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss the tentative $100 million spending plan. Another meeting is scheduled for next week. Lt. Delgado said the public is invited to the meeting.
   The current year budget is $98.15 million. It carried a tax rate increase of 10 cents, to $1.85 per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a house assessed at the township average of $186,900 paid $3,457 in school taxes for the 2002-2003 school year.
   Despite a tight spending plan this year, Mr. Delgado said the school board will avoid increasing class size and cutting per-student spending.
   The board also will consider a hiring freeze on new employees who do not deal directly with children, he said.
   School board member Paul Prodromo said any school tax increase in this year’s budget will be partially offset by an expected 2 percent increase in the value of taxable property in town. In addition, the board expects to use $3 million of the district’s $5 million in surplus.
   "We are very optimistic that we are going to be in the single digits as far as the tax increase," Mr. Prodromo said.
   The state Department of Community Affairs released figures on aid to municipalities and school districts Feb. 6.
   The district is slated to receive $18.25 million in aid, according to the state Department of Education. Of that, $10.74 million is for the core curriculum aid, $2.23 million for transportation, $4.81 million for special education, $348,223 for consolidated aid and $124,868 for programs such as bilingual education and county vocational instruction.
   State aid to school districts is based on community wealth, calculated by adding the total value of all property in a school district and the income wealth of residents, said Rich Vespucci, a state Department of Education spokesman.
   Mr. Scott said the district should have received more money to spend on technology to facilitate distance learning.
   "What they’ve done this year that I don’t think is fair is they’ve eliminated what they had been calling distance learning aid," Mr. Scott said.
   One of the 10 categories of state aid to school districts used to be designated for distance learning and was allocated based on enrollment, Mr. Scott said. This year, however, the money previously set aside for distance learning is now allocated through a category called consolidated aid, which school districts may use at their discretion, Mr. Scott said.
   Mr. Scott said that although students in wealthy districts are more likely than their disadvantaged counterparts to have access to up-to-date technology at home, lacking state of the art equipment in school hampers learning.
   "If we don’t have the computers in school, we can’t use them as a tool in the classroom," Mr. Scott said.