The East Windsor School district has announced a 23.3 percent increase in spending on student supplies and programs for next year.
By: David Pescatore
HIGHTSTOWN The school district announced recently that it will be spending nearly $1.2 million on student supplies and programs next year, a 23.3 percent increase from this year.
The increase affects the district’s Basic Pupil Support Level, or the amount spent on an individual student’s consumable school supplies, which could include guest speakers, dues, field trips and more common supplies like paints and science materials.
While 23.3 percent seems a dramatic increase, Business Administrator David Shafter explained at a Dec. 22 meeting that the jump reflects a 12.2 percent reduction that was made to meet last year’s $58 million budget.
"This seems like a big increase, but it’s not," he said, noting that the amount is 8.3 percent more than the 2002-2003 level. "We had to cut $1 million from the budget this year and $100,000 was cut from here."
Interim Superintendent James Sheerin advised the Board of Education on Monday to avoid cutting this fund in the future.
"When you put together the budget and look at the whole thing, this is a small percent. But, you don’t want to nickel and dime this area. This affects kids and what they have directly," he said.
In the elementary schools, the district plans on spending $180.68 per student to supply them in their day-to-day classes, up from $177.71 this year. Major portions of that figure go into Language Arts ($30.97), first- and second-grade math ($28.60), and the library ($24.25).
"We have found that first- and second-grade math students need more materials and consumables than third through fifth graders," Mr. Shafter said.
At the Melvin H. Kreps Middle School, the district would spend $187.02 per student, nearly $2 more than this year with similar subjects taking the largest pieces of the pie.
The figure for high school students can vary greatly depending on the choice of electives.
Students wishing to get the most for their money might want to look into videography ($62.54) or industrial arts ($59.56).
Mr. Shafter said that money would be budgeted to electives based on this year’s enrollment because it is unknown how many students will sign up for any particular class next year.
"Some years we come out ahead, some we are behind. It works out in the end," he said.
Mr. Shafter said that 95 percent of the total is budgeted directly to the subject, so that the Kreps World Language Department actually gets $5.62 of the $5.92 budgeted per student. The other 30 cents goes into a Principal’s Fund, according to Mr. Shafter.
He explained that each school’s principal could use the fund to cover an area that may have been shorted during the budgeting process.
"It is a discretionary fund," Mr. Shafter said.
While students will see a few more dollars in action, teachers can expect more "discretionary" money as well.
According to Mr. Shafter, each district teacher is given money to buy supplies for the classroom.
"This is an issue that came up at every one of my coffees," Dr. Sheerin said of his introductory meetings held last February. "(The teachers) were reaching into their pockets, and likely will continue to do so even with what we are proposing."
For the 2004-2005 school year, kindergarten teachers would receive $450, up from $400. Classroom teachers would receive $275, up from $250, and self-contained special education teachers would get $150, up from $125.
Resource, speech, world language and other teachers would receive $100, up from $80.
The district will continue the budget discussion on Jan. 26, with presentations on high school and Kreps staffing, athletics, and co-curricular activities. The budget is expected to be completed by the end of February.