The Borough Council has until May 21 to decide whether to cut the spending plan or leave it as it is.
By: Linda Seida
STOCKTON The Borough Council must decide by May 21 whether to cut Stockton Public School’s proposed budget or approve it as submitted by the Board of Education.
At the polls last week, 61 voters cast ballots in favor of the $592,275 budget with a tax levy of $12,949, and an equal number voted against it.
A tie is considered a defeat and requires a ruling by a municipality’s governing body.
The council and board have not yet scheduled a meeting, but it likely will occur soon, according to Mayor Stephen Giocondo.
"We will meet within the next two weeks," he said Friday. "We’re asking our CFO to help us, to analyze and to look at it and guide us with some questions."
The borough recently hired a new chief financial officer, Diane K. Schubach, who also is the director of finance and chief financial officer in Branchburg Township.
"Quite frankly, there’s no room in that budget," school board President Rick McDaniel said. "We don’t pad the budget."
About five years ago, the school’s budget suffered a similar defeat, and the council ultimately approved 100 percent of the budget, according to Mr. McDaniel.
"We’re making that request again," he said.
He thinks some people voted against the proposed spending plan without knowing any of the facts.
"It’s a group of people who vote no without knowing what’s in the budget," he said, adding no one asked for a copy of the proposed budget.
Only about 5 percent of the budget would be pertinent to the discussion the board must hold with the council and mayor, according to Mr. McDaniel.
Approximately 85 percent of the budget goes to contractual salaries and benefits, and another 10 percent goes to utilities, he said.
"It boils down to if they want us to use less chalk, that sort of thing," Mr. McDaniel said. Fundraisers pay for "all the extra stuff."
A spaghetti dinner fundraiser recently raised more than $10,000, and another $7,000 was raised through a rummage sale, he said.
He also pointed to a new contract in which teachers accepted a 3.5 percent raise, which he said is lower than the 4 percent teacher salary increase average in Hunterdon County.
"I’m tired of fighting the battle of people who think it would be cheaper to close the school," Mr. McDaniel said.
Busing students elsewhere and all the costs associated with educating them in another district would at least double the current budget, he said.
The school has an enrollment of about 45 students, which Mr. McDaniel said he expects to remain steady.
If the governing body approves the budget with no cuts, taxes would increase $59 for the owner of a property assessed at the average of $337,945, for a total of $1,939. The tax rate would be 57.4 cents per $100 of assessed value.

