CENTRAL JERSEY: Regional school district ready to unveil planned budget

By Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
   The East Windsor Regional School District is set to unveil its proposed budget for the 2009-2010 academic year Monday.
   The presentation will come five days after the district learned it will receive the same amount of state aid for the 2009-2010 school year as it did for the current year.
   Projected aid numbers released by the state Department of Education showed East Windsor Regional receiving $19.5 million for the next school year. Aid per pupil is set at $4,023. The total aid number matches the current year’s total aid level down to the dollar.
   Superintendent Ron Bolandi said Thursday that district administrators had assumed flat aid when creating the budget that will be made public Monday.
   ”This is what I thought was going to happen from the very beginning so it really didn’t surprise me, and it doesn’t affect anything that I am planning to present on Monday night,” Mr. Bolandi said. “Obviously, I would have loved to have seen more, because the more state aid, the more we can decrease taxes. Unfortunately, in these economic times, I couldn’t expect to see more money. But everything is going to be OK.”
   Last year’s budget of about $80 million increased the school tax rate in Hightstown by 23 cents per $100 of assessed valuation while lifting the township rate by 1 cent.
   The proposed 2009-10 budget is scheduled to be unveiled at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Board of Education’s regular meeting. It is held in the cafeteria of Hightstown High School, at 25 Leshin Lane, in Hightstown.
   A public hearing on the financial document is scheduled for March 30, and voters get their final say during the April 21 election.