Hazlet sup’t. says
price to pay is minimal
considering unfair aid
By elaine van develde
Staff Writer
While the Hazlet Board of Education’s proposed budget was put to the public with a 17.8-cent per $100 of assessed property valuation hike, it did not provoke much resistance.
At the March 24 budget hearing at Raritan High School, the board voted unanimously to amend the proposed budget, with board President Lee Bailey and member Carol Matarese absent.
The hearing itself, however, revealed that parents and administrators alike worried more about cuts than anything else.
Superintendent of Schools Renae LaPrete made her plea for public support for the budget that reflects a double-digit school tax increase. She also cleared up what she deemed rumors in slashed spending.
"Not one account for extra-curricular activities or supplies was cut to zero," LaPrete said. "To keep the budget hike anywhere near the state cap (of 3 percent) for increases, we cut here or there by $50 to $100, but the fact remains that we need what we need and we order what we need. If I can cut something, even a little, somewhere, then I have to. Every little bit does count in being fiscally responsible."
The budget calls for an increase of 17.8 cents per $100 of assessed property valuation. The total budget is $38 million with a $25.9 million tax levy.
The proposed budget would boost the school tax rate from $2.241 to $2.419 per $100 of assessed property valuation.
Last year, the total budget was $35.7 million, with a proposed tax hike of 23.5 cents per $100 of assessed property valuation.
The 2002-03 school budget was defeated at the polls by about 40 votes.
The budget failure last year forced the Township Committee cut the budget by $525,773.
The average assessed residential property in the township is $133,700, LaPrete said. The proposed hike would cost a taxpayer with property assessed at that value another $240 a year.
For property assessed at $160,000, the 2003-04 budget would cost that owner another $288 a year.
The total projected state aid figure is $11.5 million for 2003-04.
In response to what LaPrete said were staunch parental demands, priorities for the district were set and included in the budget.
The district’s priority items of expanding the reading literacy program to include kindergarten, adding a state-mandated world language teacher for elementary school, adding six elementary school teachers to lower class size, adding a math teacher at the high school level, adding a teacher in the middle school, science lab renovations in the high school, addition of a student assistance counselor; adding a computer technician, almost $200,000 worth of books in elementary social studies, science curriculum revisions, U.S. history 1 and 2 textbook revisions, an Odyssey of the Mind coach at the middle school, and approximately 26 curriculum revisions are all included in the budget.
LaPrete responded to questions before and during the hearing about cuts in music programs, including the high school’s jazz ensemble.
She said if a class was cut from the rolls, it was because enrollment wouldn’t support keeping it on the schedule.
"I can’t be fiscally responsible and run a class in which there are six kids enrolled," she said.
Raritan High School Principal Colleen Rafter said that school generally looks for enrollment of 15 to 20 students at a minimum to keep a class on the roster.
Some parents asked that others vote and support the budget with the double-digit increase to ensure no loss of programs or staff.
Intervention was a tactic LaPrete implemented to keep costs down, she said.
"If several forms of intervention hadn’t been used, the proposed tax increase would have been higher," she noted.
With Hazlet’s per pupil cost at $8,829, lower than the $10,138 state average, LaPrete said shared services with the township as well as getting out of district kids out of the system accounted for some major cost savings.
Fourteen students who were not residents of the township were found during the 2002-03 school year to be attending Hazlet schools for free.
"That’s a large chunk of money to put back into the system," she said. "It accounts for more than $120,000.
LaPrete also announced that $105,000 in new tuition costs for Hazlet students enrolled in the shared time, or part-time, Monmouth County Vocational School districts would not be imposed on the township’s school district this year.
The decision to rescind the tuition increase, and relieve the local school districts, came March 21 after the county decided to pick up the costs for the additional tuition.
The Monmouth County Vocational School District initially pulled the plug on all districts at the eleventh hour, right before budgets were due for tentative adoption March 3. Administrators were told to find the money to subsidize the program in their respective districts.
That money was put back into the budget in an amendment: $45,000 to beef up high school science labs; and $60,000 for school projects.
There will be no other budget questions on the April 15 ballot.