Stockton spending plan ups taxes

The proposed budget would increase the average taxpayer’s bill by about $150 a year.

By: Mae Rhine
   STOCKTON — With state aid remaining virtually the same for the past three years, Stockton Public School’s proposed budget of $561,932, approved by the Board of Education March 30, is "flatter than the world before Columbus," joked Superintendent Suzanne Ivans.
   But the tiny K-6 school is clawing its way forward each year, she said, updating its curricula and managing to find other sources of funding for needed projects.
   The budget, which will go before the voters in the April 18 school election, calls for a total tax levy of $549,360, up from last year’s $500,752.
   For the owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $166,433, that means an increase of $150 a year or a total of $2,031 a year, calculated on the proposed tax rate of $1.22 per $100 of assessed valuation.
   Last year, the owner of a home assessed at the same average of $166,433 paid $1,881 a year based on a tax rate of $1.13.
   The average value of a home in the borough has stayed the same because a revaluation has not yet been completed.
   Stockton School actually was fortunate in that its state aid didn’t get cut, Ms. Ivans said. It will remain at $12,575, the same as this year, and a little less than the 2004-05 total of $14,867.
   Teacher salaries and benefits for most of the staff make up a good portion of the budget — about $346,000 — which includes a 3.94 percent raise for the staff, who are in the last year of a three-year contract that gave raises of 3.14 and 3.05 percent for the first two years.
   Health benefits are calculated at 17 percent of each employee’s salary, an increase from 15.6 percent this year. The cost will rise from $57,621 to $67,118 next year.
   Ms. Ivans’ salary will be $99,000 for the 2006-07 year. That was under a new five-year contract approved by the board, which will expire June 2010. Her salary for the 2007-08 year will be $102,000; for the 2008-09 year, $105,500; and for the final year of the contract, $109,500.
   Ms. Ivans was hired in December 2001 with a 3½-year contract. Her old contract expired June 2005.
   The school anticipates 51 children next year, up from 45 this year.
   The district still has not used its $30,000 set aside to plan what repairs it needs to make to the school. Because the school, built in 1872, was listed in 2004 on the National Register of Historic Places, it was eligible for grants for renovations.
   There are two types of grants, a planning grant and the "bricks and mortar" one, available from the New Jersey Historical Commission. A grant of $22,500 is being supplied by the commission this year, which the district had to match in a 75-25 split. That means Stockton has to pay the remaining $7,500 of the estimated $30,000 cost of planning for repairs.
   The grant was approved, but the money was frozen at the state level during the gubernatorial transition.
   But Ms. Ivans said the money is "de facto" and should be released soon.
   Once the architect and engineers decide what should be done, the district can apply for the bricks and mortar grant. That is a 50-50 split so the district has to make sure it can afford its share, Ms. Ivans said.
   "They (the commission) want to know we have the money before they release theirs," she said, if the bricks and mortar grant is approved.
   The architect and engineers will be coming to the school during the spring break, she said. The bricks and mortar grant application is due June 1. Those type of grants are only available every two years so if the district doesn’t apply, it must wait until 2008.
   "The board is eager to get an application in," Ms. Ivans said.
   Some of the repairs that are needed include a crumbling chimney that was enclosed when a new one was built, she said. Dust behind that wall is being found in the basement of the school, and the tiles over the enclosed chimney are cracking, she said.
   There also are other repairs, including cosmetic ones, the district is mulling, she said. The building, which had an addition completed in 1885, has been settling for many years, and beams and other parts of the interior, including a collapsing vestibule, must be shored up.
   "If you were made in the 1800s, you’d start to sag, too," Ms. Ivans said with a smile.
   Other improvements are being made to the curricula. Next year, the district hopes to buy new social studies textbooks for grades three to five. Because of its limited funds, Ms. Ivans said, it takes about two years to update curricula. It took two years for language arts and two years for math.
   The social studies curriculum was updated for sixth grade last year, she added.
   "Every year, we do something," Ms. Ivans pointed out. "It’s not much, but as long as we move forward. . ."