The district’s proposed $61.5 million operating budget for
2006-07 carries a tax-rate increase of 9 cents, which means
the property tax rate would increase from $1.96 per $100 of
assessed value to $2.05. Voters will have their say on the tax levy on April 18.
By:Cara Latham Special Writer
The Lawrence Township Board of Education voted unanimously among seven members present on March 29 to approve the proposed $61.5 million 2006-07 school budget that carries a 9-cent increase. The budget will go to the voters on April 18.
The district’s proposed $61.5 million operating budget for 2006-07 carries a tax-rate increase of 9 cents, which means the property tax rate would increase from $1.96 per $100 of assessed value to $2.05. Under the proposal, the owner of a house assessed at the township average of $164,117 would pay $3,364 to support the 2006-07 budget. This is an increase of $148.
Compared with the 2005-06 school budget, the township plans to spend about $1.3 million more in 2006-07, or a 2 percent increase, according to Business Administrator Tom Eldridge.
Contributing to the hike in the tax levy to support the budget is the flat state aid of $4.5 million and the loss of $1.2 million in tuition revenue from Washington Township, Mr. Eldridge said. Washington will be in the last year of its sending and receiving relationship with Lawrence in 2006-07.
Washington had been sending its high school students to Lawrence High School since the early 1990s, but the township now has its own high school.
Because of the reduction of tuition revenue to 1 percent, and with the state only funding 7 percent of the budget, 92 percent of the costs in the budget fall on taxpayers, he said.
The cost-saving steps the board proposed for the budget include: improving employee attendance and reducing costs for substitute teachers; cutting the administration’s travel budgets, and reducing the number of students sent out of the district for special education, said Mr. Eldridge.
The district will also increase the prescription co-pay at pharmacies for its employees, require a new deductible on their dental plans and new co-pays for the district’s health care plan, and eliminate the post-employment medical benefits for administrators, said Mr. Eldridge.
Mr. Eldridge said the district spends $11,041 per student, which is just below the state average of $11,215 and falls in the middle of the school districts in Mercer County.
"Lawrence always has fallen in the middle," he said. "You never want to be at the end, and you never want to be at the top."
The Board of Education member are aiming to "maintain excellence" in the school district with the $61.5 million operating budget, despite the flat state aid and the loss of tuition revenue from Washington Township, said Superintendent of Schools Philip J. Meara.
"Normally, when a large segment of the population, and I’m talking about Washington Township, leaves, the expectation is that the programs that you offer would diminish," he said. "I spent a long time talking with (Lawrence High School Principal Donald) Proffit, and he assured me that all programs at the High School are still in place for next year."
Mr. Meara said small class sizes would be maintained in the elementary schools and Lawrence Intermediate School. The district also formed a task force to evaluate the academic rigor of the district’s schools, beginning with the high school, which will begin next year, he said.
Mr. Meara also said directed staff to develop a math core curriculum for kindergarten through grade 12, and expects it to be completed by the end of next year.
As part of the effort to improve the curriculum, the board will be hiring two full-time supervisors for the K-12 curriculum one for math and one for science.
The additional hires for math and science supervisors did not go far enough for supporters of the district’s E=MC2 program, a teacher-training program that is slated to undergo cuts. The board reduced the full-time supervisor post, held by Sona Polakowski, from full-time to part-time.
Pine Knoll Drive resident Anne Catena asked if board members were aware at the time they voted that the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District has three supervisors each for the math and science curriculum, compared with the proposal of one supervisor each for math and science in Lawrence.
"Unfortunately, I don’t believe the board knew that before you voted, and the vote was very close," said Ms. Catena. "Now, with that information, I would ask you to please reconsider that position and to consider moving it back to a full-time position."
At the March 8 board meeting, Interim Superintendent of Schools Thomas Butler said the responsibility of the E=MC2 program would be given to the new supervisors, and the district could probably still maintain a quality service to the programs even though it is reducing the position to half time. It helped to save money while creating the budget, he said.
Kathleen Browne, scientist and the director of the Teaching and Learning Center at Rider University, asked the board to reconsider the cutbacks for the E=MC2 program.
"Science and math literacy is really important," said Ms. Browne. "There’s a lot of work to be done in every district. Regardless of how progressive you are, it’s a very large uphill battle to do well in student performance."
But school board president Laura Waters said that the reduction in the position had nothing to do with a decline in the board’s commitment to the program, but rather a re-organization.

