budget cuts not easy
decisions to make
Howell school official
defends spending plan
Accelerated payments,
budget cuts not easy
decisions to make
By kathy baratta
Staff Writer
HOWELL — How to spend taxpayers’ money is a job that Board of Education members do not take lightly, board Vice President Valerie Rosenberg said.
Defending the board’s decision to pay an additional $1.29 million to complete the construction of the township school district’s two new elementary schools, Rosenberg said the move was necessary in order to have them ready for a September opening.
"What the money got us was a guarantee the work would be done — certain portions at certain times," Rosenberg said. "Barring any further problems, the two schools should open on time in September."
However, the district’s new middle school being built off Route 524 will not be ready until September 2004, Rosenberg said. A record year for rain, snow and cold weather delayed construction, she said.
Similarly, Rosenberg said, making cuts to the 2003-04 school budget was not an easy task either.
After voters defeated a proposed $93 million budget for the 2003-04 school year, of which $48 million would be raised through local property taxes, the Township Council was given the job of cutting it.
Cuts were made and the tax levy was lowered to $47.1 million.
The projected K-8 school tax rate increase for the coming year will be 13 cents, meaning the K-8 school tax rate will rise from $1.66 to $1.79 for each $100 of assessed valuation. In other words, the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 will pay $2,685 in school taxes in the coming year. The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 will pay about $5,370.
One of the areas cut was after-school busing.
"We looked at last year’s [numbers] and saw areas where we could save, — places where instead of eight buses we could get by with two or three," Rosenberg said.
Teacher salaries were cut, too, by $270,576. Rosenberg attributed this savings to several "high-end retirements." These were teachers at the high end of the pay spectrum who were retiring and being replaced by teachers receiving starting salaries.
Said Rosenberg, "We call it breakage — the difference between the salary of retirees and new hires." She said breakage also applies to other areas such as computer and media personnel.
Other areas to receive cuts were:
• textbooks and new enrollments,- $25,000;
• guidance salaries, $37,775;
• media assistant salary, $14,775;
• advertising for new personnel, $5,000;
• maintenance, $81,180;
• grounds personnel, $26,150;
• custodial personnel, $45,000;
• electricity for new K-5 schools – $50,000;
• Freehold Regional High School District, $100,000;
• late buses, $35,000;
• employee health benefits, $100,000.
Cuts from the capital expense portion of the budget include $5,000 for compliance issues; $10,000 for adaptive equipment; and $15,000 for tile replacement, Rosenberg said.
The remaining $181,545 was being taken from last year’s budget surplus and applied to the coming school year’s budget.