by Maria Prato-Gaines, The Packet Group
ROBBINSVILLE — A lack of classroom space was a prime concern as residents got their chance to tell the school board what they think of its $38.6 million budget.
The public hearing was held March 31, at which time the board formally adopted the 2009-2010 financial plan that would lift the school tax rate by close to 5 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
That would translate into an extra $189 for a homeowner assessed at $400,000, from $4,334 to $4,523, according to Business Administrator Louise Davis.
Residents will get their final say when they go to the ballot box April 21 and decide whether to approve a nearly $29.7 million tax levy to support the budget. Last year, residents rejected a budget that would have raised the school tax rate by 4 cents and wound up with a 3-cent hike after the Township Council made cuts.
”I see Robbinsville as in a real pickle,” said resident George Gother. “How much more money can we pay? We can’t stick (students) in cubes and we don’t have enough money to keep building schools.”
The new budget calls for 16 new full-time positions, including five staff members’ hours increasing from part-time to full-time. The 11 new employees would comprise six new special education teachers, two new teachers at Sharon Elementary School, a math teacher at the high school, a teacher at Pond Road Middle School, and a psychologist.
The equivalent of about two positions are targeted for elimination.
The budget maintains the ROTC program, which had been on the chopping block, by taking $90,000 from the fund balance for next year, Superintendent John Szabo said. However, because less than 10 percent of the student body is participating, the ROTC program remains on probation and will be reviewed by the Air Force at the end of next year.
Two full-time ROTC instructors are paid with a combination of Air Force and school district funding.
Several members of the public attending the hearing were disturbed at hearing the conditions under which staff has been working — taking lunch breaks at their desks, making phone calls from their cars because faculty lounges had been converted to classrooms; and teaching by carts due to the limited space.
”My heart goes out to you,” said former board member and current board candidate Florence Gange to the staff sitting in the audience. “I’ve been absent for about five or six years and I’m appalled to see what has transpired. Is this a trend that’s going to continue upward, and if so, what are the projections?”
Board member Carol Boyne linked the issue to the community’s population growth, but said the exact time frame when things began to spiral out of control was when the fourth-graders moved from the Sharon Elementary School to the Pond Road Middle School. That occurred around 2003.
”Some planners tried to focus on the facilities’ needs,” she said. “But due to a lack of public support, it never moved forward.”
Students also have been affected, according to district officials, as some get classroom hooks instead of lockers, and others have multiple classes in the same space during one period.
”We know we have space issues, but we haven’t had support from the community,” said board member Matthew O’Grady.
Superintendent Szabo has said the Sharon and Pond Road schools are “stretched to the hilt” because of burgeoning enrollment. As a result, the district has been using trailers for classrooms and is looking at building an intermediate school, for about 700 students in grades 3 through 5, most likely adjacent to Pond Road school. But, he has said, a voter referendum would be needed in the future to approve such an expenditure.
District leaders were looking, earlier in the budget process, at adding four modular units at the Sharon school, but that number was reduced to one unit, to house two classrooms, Dr. Szabo said.
Also eyed were proposed renovations to Pond Road school’s media center, but that project was discarded because school officials felt it was not feasible and would not provide the space that was needed, according to Dr. Szabo. Instead the district has opted to put additional classes on cart, including drama, technology and art courses, he explained.
The superintendent brought up a familiar refrain at the March 31 hearing, criticizing the state for underfunding school districts. While the district got a net-gain of about $26,000 in state funding this year, Dr. Szabo said that pales in comparison to the $12 million-plus that the New Jersey School Boards Association says is needed in the Robbinsville district.
The $38.6 million budget represents an increase of about $1.4 million from the current school year budget. It includes a general fund of $33.8 million and a debt service fund of $4.4 million.

