Last year’s $130 million spending plan expected to show 4- to 5-percent increase.
By: Jill Matthews
The West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District administration is expected to unveil its preliminary 2005-2006 budget tonight.
The preliminary budget is expected to show a 4- to 5-percent increase over last year’s $130 million budget and include approximately $1.5 million for capital improvements, board President Hemant Marathe said. He did not have specific numbers on hand.
Board Finance Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Smith said he was reluctant to discuss specific budget numbers. When asked if he could confirm Mr. Marathe’s estimates, however, Mr. Smith that he would not contradict the board president.
How the estimated budget increase will affect taxpayers cannot yet be determined. Last year, Plainsboro’s school tax rate increased 14 percent while West Windsor residents received a slight decrease in their school tax bills. Under the existing tax equalization ratios used by the state for regional school districts, the Plainsboro share of the budget will increase again with the 2005-2006 budget, but not to the extent it did for the 2004-2005 school year, Mr. Smith said in December.
Plainsboro is challenging the tax equalization ratios in state court on the ground that they results in Plainsboro residents being taxed at a disproportionately higher rate than West Windsor residents to support the regional school district.
The budget increase for 2005-2006 is not expected to necessitate a second question on the ballot, Mr. Marathe said. He said it is expected to fall within the scope of new state legislation, which generally limits budget increases to 2.5 percent and restricts the amount of money a district can keep in its surplus. Mr. Marathe said the district will not exceed these limits and restrictions because of allowed budget increases due to enrollment growth and because of planning done by the administration in previous years, he said.
Both Mr. Marathe and Mr. Smith said the administration’s presentation would be a broad overview of the budget and an outline of its general structure. The presentation will also include a budget timeline, extra steps required by the new state legislation and enrollment growth and staffing projections, among other things.
In other business, the school board is expected to hear an interim update on a committee review of the middle school program of studies.
After a litany of complaints from critics, the Board of Education in October set up a committee to review the strengths and weaknesses of the program.
The controversial program of studies combines language arts and reading into one class, lengthens academic periods, reduces study hall time and offers a new support class called Literacy in the Content Area, where teachers of all disciplines integrate literacy into their lessons. Over the summer, the board decided to tweak the program for eighth-graders but left it mostly intact for sixth- and seventh-graders. The schedule now blends literacy back into regular classes five days a week for eighth-graders, among other things.
The committee is also examining exemplary middle school programs, creating a vision and an action plan and developing assessment data to ensure the program continues to improve.

