CHESTERFIELD: Board approves budget to go before voters April 21

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
CHESTERFIELD — The Board of Education has reduced the district’s operating costs under its tentative budget, but if approved by voters in April, taxpayers still face an 8-cent hike in the school tax rate to pay for the debt service on a new, previously approved $37 million school building.
    On Monday, the board voted 4-0 to send the budget to the county for approval, with school board member Vincent Napoleon absent, according to Business Administrator Louise Zoilkowski.
    If approved by the county, voters will be asked April 21 to approve a budget of about $5.4 million, not including debt service for the cost of a new school approved by voters in December 2007. While the tax levy for the operating budget would fall 2 cents per $100 of assessed home value under the new budget, the debt service will add 10 cents to the rate, which would mean the proposed rate would be 88.3 cents, an 8-cent increase over this year’s rate.
    Only the operating budget and associated 2-cent tax decrease will require voter approval at the school election April 21.
    For the owner of a home assessed at $452,036, that would lead to an estimated tax bill of $3,991.48, an increase of $361.63.
    Ms. Zoilkowski said Tuesday the decrease in the operating budget was due in part to an increase in ratables in the township.
    The district will hold a public hearing on its budget at a special meeting 7:30 p.m. March 31 in the Media Center at the current Chesterfield Township School.
    Work on the future home of the district in the new, $37 million school building has begun; the district broke ground Jan. 10 at 22 Saddle Way. Once completed, the building will hold up to 900 students, something school officials have said will be needed due to population growth projection.
    The school will be in the new part of Old York Village and available to the community year-round for athletics, meetings and community events. In addition, all administrative operations will be housed within the building, which is expected to open in 2010.
    The need for a new school arose as a result of development in the township’s receiving area. A total of 1,100 houses are planned for the receiving area under the township’s Transfer of Development Rights program.
    Students in grades one and two are now bused to the neighboring North Hanover Clarence B. Lamb School where school officials have a three-year lease to house students.
    Voters approved the new school 669-594 in December 2007.