Superintendent says 2.88 percent increase
is lowest he can get and lowest in area
By:Marnie Kunz
Manville Superintendent Donald Burkhardt introduced a $14.3 million school operating budget for the 2004-05 school year at the Board of Education meeting Tuesday night.
The plan represents a 2.88 percent total increase less than half of last year’s 6.96 percent increase in the operating budget for the upcoming school year. Although Dr. Burkhardt did not include any increase in state aid in the proposed budget, decreasing enrollments in the lower grades helped minimize the impact of declining state assistance.
"The budget is the lowest I can get it and the lowest increase around," Dr. Burkhardt said Tuesday.
Dr. Burkhardt cited the proposed 6 percent increase in spending in the neighboring Hillsborough School District as a typical amount of increase in the county.
"The 2004-05 plan contains no cuts in programs, personnel or curriculum," school board President Dorothy Bradley said. "Two staff members will be leaving but it will be balanced out by lowered enrollments next year in the lower grades."
Next year’s budget will focus on strengthening the curriculum and adding new technology in accordance with the five-year technology plan that’s in place, Ms. Bradley said.
About 72 percent or $10,324,777 of the total budget will be raised by local taxes, according to Dr. Burkhardt’s projection. The current tax rate is $1.871 per $100 of assessed property value. This translates to $2,582 in taxes for a home assessed at $138,000, the average assessment in the borough.
The district hasn’t made tax rate projections for the proposed budget and Ms. Bradley said the district will wait until the Feb. 26 announcement of state aid before doing so.