would climb 13 cents
under proposed budget
Budget for ’03-04 funds
new teachers, trailers
Monroe school tax rate
would climb 13 cents
under proposed budget
By vincent todaro
Staff Writer
MONROE — Monroe taxpayers will see their school taxes increase by almost 13 cents under a tentative budget presented for 2003-04 by the Board of Education.
The budget includes the creation of 41 new staff positions, including teachers at all levels throughout the K-12 district. The teachers are needed because student enrollment has met and even exceeded the growth projections of 350 additional students per year, according to Board of Education President Joseph Homoki.
The new positions include eight new special education teachers to allow the district to meet federal special education mandates, Homoki said.
The total amount of the budget is $54,318,040, according to School Business Administrator Wayne Holliday. Last year’s tab was $48,413,608.
Holliday attributed some of the increase to the district’s need to install 16 trailers at its schools in order to cope with a sharply increased enrollment.
"It’s predominately that we have to put in 16 trailers to accommodate expanded enrollment," he said.
That includes eight trailers at the Applegarth Middle School, six at the Brookside School and two at Monroe Township High School.
The district’s six schools, including the high school, middle school and four elementary schools, have become overcrowded with students, and voters will be asked to approve plans for a new high school during a referendum later this year.
In addition to paying for the trailers, the district will also have to shell out for the cost of their delivery and installation, architects’ fees and other related expenses. The total cost of the trailers is estimated at about $1.7 million, Homoki said.
Other costs driving the tax increase are the need for supplies such as textbooks and furniture for the trailers.
When voters go to the booths in April, they will vote on whether or not to accept the local tax levy in support of the general fund of the budget. Voters in New Jersey do not actually vote on total school budgets or total general funds, only the amount to be raised by taxes for the general fund.
The difference between the total general fund and the total budget figure is made up mostly of debt service. Residents do not vote during the school election on debt service related to the school budget. Expenses related to the debt have already received prior approval.
In Monroe’s case, residents are paying debt service stemming from a 1999 referendum that authorized about $15 million to add space to the high school.
The general fund of the budget this year stands at about $49.6 million — up by about $6 million from last year, Holliday said. The amount of local taxes to support the general fund is just less than $43 million, Holliday said.
The school tax rate is currently just over $1.50 per $100 of assessed valuation, he said, and would increase to about $1.63 under this budget.
Monroe will actually get about $155,000 more in state aid for the 2003-04 school year than it did to support the current year, he said.
A public hearing on the school budget is scheduled for March 26, and voters will have their say on the tax levy during the April 15 school election.
"This budget is based on a continuation of the educational programs we’ve had," Homoki said.
School officials will hold a series of budget presentation, including stops at many of the township’s retirement communities. The presentations will begin next week and continue through early April.