BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
JACKSON – When Jackson residents go to the polls on April 17 to vote in the annual school election, they will be asked to approve the collection of $65.2 million in local property taxes to help support a total budget of $132.8 million for the 2007-08 school year.
The Board of Education adopted the budget following a public hearing on March 27.
Polls will be open between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. Polling locations can be found on the Jackson School District Internet Web site at www.JacksonSD.org. Click on voting information.
If the tax levy is approved by voters, the school tax rate will increase by 8.75 cents from $2.23 to slightly more than $2.31 per $100 of assessed valuation.
That means the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 (the township average) will pay $3,465 in school taxes in 2007-08, up from $3,345 in 2006-07. The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 will pay $6,930 in school taxes in 2007-08, up from $6,690 in 2006-07. The owner of a home assessed at $500,000 will pay $11,550 in school taxes in 2007-08, up from $11,150 in 2006-07.
School taxes are one part of a property owner’s overall tax bill, which also includes Jackson municipal taxes, Ocean County taxes, fire district taxes and other assessments.
District administrators said increasing costs for energy, special education tuition, fuel and employee contracts helped drive up the cost of operating Jackson’s schools.
The budget seeks to protect class size, maintain most programs and not eliminate programs by reducing some programs thereby making them cost-effective.
Superintendent of Schools Thomas Gialanella said there were some cuts made in teachers, administration, athletics, activities and transportation which included 19 net positions, two administrative and 17 teachers.
There will be limited capital improvements in store for the district which include: windows, carpeting, sidewalks and lighting at various elementary schools; some improvements at the Goetz Middle School; and an intercom system at the Switlik School.
Gialanella noted that a new state law limited the amount of money the district could collect in local property taxes for the 2007-08 school year. He also said administrators were not permitted to take an adjustment for enrollment growth.
He noted that state aid to the school district had been frozen at the same level for the past five years, in effect denying Jackson schools an increase for the additional students that have entered the district.
“Since Jackson is a growing district, we are being treated unequally compared to districts around the state,” he said. “This year Jackson received a 3 percent increase in our state aid. This amounts to nothing to rectify the six years of enrollment increases.”
Getting less state aid than what administrators believe the district should receive means taxpayers have to make up the difference in the cost of the operation of the schools, he said.
Gialanella said based on Jackson’s socioeconomic classification as determined by the state, the district should have received a 5.4 percent increase in state aid, instead of a 3 percent increase.
The superintendent said there have been meetings with state legislators, but nothing beneficial to the district has come of those meetings so far.
Enrollment figures provided by the board indicate that on Oct. 15 of each year noted here Jackson schools had the following number of students: 8,266 students in 2000; 8,753 students in 2001 (increase of 487); 9,167 students in 2002 (increase of 414); 9,487 students in 2003 (increase of 320); 9,689 students in 2004 (increase of 202); 9,767 students in 2005 (increase of 78); and 9,820 students in 2006 (increase of 53).
Administrators are projecting Jackson schools will enroll 10,011 students during the 2007-08 school year (increase of 191).
During the public hearing, resident Paul Mayerowitz questioned that projected increase.
“Next year’s budget projection is 191 (additional) students,” he said. “That is a three- to four-time increase. Where are they coming from?”
“We look at two things when we’re trying to project,” Gialanella said. “What the state allows us to put in there and what our chemistry has been. Not only our recent history, but our history within the last five to six years.”
He said if you look at the last five to six years then 190 is not acceptable, so administrators try to look at the overall picture and the entire township.
“We expect in the future there will be continued growth, more than in the past, and we will look at the next 10 years like we did in the 1990s,” said Gialanella.
Gialanella said he would get a list of housing developments that would be coming on line within the next few years and share it with Mayerowitz.
Board member Marvin Krakower said he moved to Jackson about 25 years ago and the people who moved in at that time have children who are grown and have moved away. Those people, his neighbors, are moving away now and selling their homes to young families with school-age children.
“We’re going to see that affecting our schools,” Krakower said.
Resident Stan Goldman questioned the increased cost of telephones and wanted to know if this was the cost for new phone services. He was told by Krakower that it was an expansion of the system.