Second school ballot question has been trimmed

Public hearing and final adoption vote on both spending proposals will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Stony Brook Elementary School

By John Tredrea
   The amount of a proposed separate ballot question for the April 17 school district election has been reduced to $375,000 from $1,714,000, following elimination of several items by a state Department of Education (DOE) review group.
   The proposed base budget now totals $68,707,912.
   The Hopewell Valley school board voted unanimously Monday night to make the change to the amount of the separate question.
   The board’s last chance to alter the dollar amount of the base budget and separate question will be next Monday, when a public hearing and final adoption vote on the board’s proposed spending plan for 2007-2008 will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Stony Brook Elementary School on Stephenson Road in the Brandon Farms housing development.
   There will be a presentation of the 2007-2008 budget plan Friday (tomorrow) at 8 a.m. at Timberlane Middle School cafetorium, South Timberlane Drive. At this session the school board will discuss the proposed spending plan with members of the Valley’s three municipal governing bodies. Members of the public are invited to attend.
   Proposing a second question enables the school board to seek funding for items it cannot fit in its base budget. "The board would have to remove items from the base budget or increase non-tax revenues to add these items (those covered by the separate question) to the base budget," said John Nemeth, school district business administrator and school board secretary.
   "The board did not want to do this. I suspect this concept may be discussed at the public hearing," he said.
   Increasingly strict regulations on school budgets are the reason the district cannot fit the items covered by the separate question in the base budget, school officials said. The regulations include caps on how much the district may increase its tax levy over that of the preceding year. The proposed Hopewell Valley budget is already at cap without the items covered by the second question. That is why the second question is being proposed, Mr. Nemeth explained.
   The board voted to change the dollar amount of the separate ballot question after a DOE review committee disallowed many of the items in the $1,714,000 project list approved by the school board March 12.
   Voter approval of the separate question is contingent on voter approval of the budget.
   Mr. Nemeth said the state review panel ordered the removal of all items pertaining to health and safety, sidewalk construction and other items.
   Among the projects scrapped from the separate question, Mr. Nemeth noted, was a proposed annual renovation of restrooms in the schools. As of now, this project has been eliminated from the district’s spending plan for 2007-2008.
   The following are in the $375,000 separate question as approved Monday night:
   • $87,000 for security upgrades in the schools. This amount was left unchanged from the item tentatively approved by the board March 12. This covers security cameras, locks, door buzzers and other equipment.
   • $21,500 for a new clock and bell system at Central High School. This is down from $63,500 for new clocks and bell systems at all district schools.
   • $118,000 for renovation of the Timberlane Middle School tennis courts. This also was in the ballot question before it was cut. Several hundred thousand dollars worth of other proposed renovation projects, such as roof work on Toll Gate Grammar School and the Administration Building, have been removed.
   School board Vice President Linda Mitchell said March 12 that the tennis courts are in urgent need of repair if they are to "be saved."
   • $148,600 to mill and repave the blacktop at the Timberlane bus loop and parking lots. These currently are "in pretty bad shape," Mr. Nemeth said. This item also was in the $1.7 million version of the separate question.
   School administrators and board members expressed dismay and confusion over the state committee’s decision that led to many of the cuts. Board President Kim Newport said it seemed "irresponsible" for the state to prohibit the district from seeking voter approval, in a separate question, for funding for health and safety-related improvements to existing schools.
   "I don’t understand the logic of allowing repaving, but not allowing sidewalks," added Superintendent Judith A. Ferguson. The superintendent and board members said the board might propose, before its final adoption vote next Monday, adding items permitted by the state to the separate question. Repaving projects are among those possibilities.
   Dr. Ferguson said a section of the high school parking lot near the auditorium needs work. It was not included in the $1.7 million question that has been reduced to $375,000.