MARLBORO — The 4:15 p.m. late bus will be included in the proposed 2009-10 budget for the Marlboro K-8 School District, but an extra special education teacher will be eliminated to keep the school tax rate from rising more than it is currently projected to increase.
The Marlboro Board of Education held a special meeting on Feb. 24 to tentatively adopt a budget for the 2009-10 school year.
After two months of workshop meetings to discuss the components of the budget, a majority of board members said they believed it was necessary to keep the late bus in place so that students would have a ride home from after-school activities. Having decided to maintain the 4:15 p.m. bus, board members had to decide which avenue to pursue in order to pay for the bus.
One option was for a 1-cent increase per $100 of assessed valuation in the tax rate, but that would eliminate an extra special education teacher that had been figured into the budget. If the board wanted to keep the special education teacher and the late bus, there would have been a 1.3-cent increase per $100 of assessed valuation.
Ultimately, the board voted 8-0 to adopt a tentative budget which would result in a 1-cent increase in the K-8 tax rate. Board member Joseph Waldman was absent from the meeting.
The total budget for 2009-10 is $84,480,642 and includes a general fund of $77.9 million and a debt service fund of $4.7 million. With the 1-cent increase, Marlboro’s K-8 school tax rate would rise from $2.073 to $2.083 per $100 of assessed valuation. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for the March 31 board meeting.
The 1-cent increase in the tax rate means the owner of a home assessed at $250,000 would pay $5,207 in K-8 school taxes next year, up from $5,182 in the 2008-09 school year. The owner of a home assessed at $500,000 would pay $10,415 in K-8 school taxes next year, up from $10,365 in 2008- 09.
On April 21 the public will vote on a $62.4 million general fund tax levy, up from the 2008-09 general fund tax levy which was $61 million. Residents will not vote on the 2009-10 debt service tax levy which will be $3,987,680.
Due to a delay in the release of the 2009- 10 state aid numbers, the state Department of Education has directed school district administrators to use the amount of aid they received in 2008-09 while crafting their budgets. Once Gov. Jon Corzine gives his budget message, the numbers for state aid will be released and any changes will be made at the March 31 public hearing.
This will be the first year that Monmouth County Executive Superintendent Carole Morris will review all of the county’s school budgets and make any changes she deems necessary.
Marlboro’s business administrator will advertise the tentative budget prior to Morris’s approval, as directed by the Department of Education.
Superintendent of Schools David Abbott said the removal of the special education instructor from the budget would not be taking a job away from a current district employee. He explained that every year extra money is budgeted for special education since the needs vary from year to year.
“Some years we use them, some years we don’t,” Abbott said of the additional teaching position.
Abbott added that if the board chose to eliminate the position and it became a necessary position, he could go to the district’s surplus to hire a teacher and explain the need for that action to Morris.
Board member Michael Lilonsky said he felt at this time with the state of the economy it would not be right to ask voters to support a 1.3-cent increase in the tax rate when there was a way to obtain the extra teacher if necessary.
Other board members agreed with Lilonsky that it would be OK to tap into the surplus if the need for the special education teacher become evident.
Board Vice President Terry Spilken and board members Joel Golub and Raymond Eng said they felt it would not be a good practice of relying on the district’s surplus.
Pointing to transfers on the evening’s agenda to move funds into special education, Spilken said the board was being fiscally irresponsible to think that the additional money would not be needed for the 2009-10 school year.
“To take it out of surplus, I think, is a sin,” Spilken said.
Eng noted that the surplus funds are to be maintained so that in the event of an emergency the district would have immediate access to funds.
In the end the majority of board members believed it would be best to put forth a budget with the late bus alone. Although Spilken, Golub and Eng said they would have preferred budgeting for both the late bus and the extra teacher, the three men did support the budget when the board voted to adopt the tentative spending plan.
Contact Rebecca Morton at [email protected]

