CRANBURY: Voters approve school plan

By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
   CRANBURY — Cranbury passed the 2009-10 $17.6 million school budget by a decent margin Tuesday with 277 voting in favor of it and 171 voting against it.
   A total of 451 residents cast their vote for the elections, about 16 percent of the 2,754 registered voters in the township.
   The budget sets the tax rate at 90.95 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Under that rate, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $636,540 can expect to pay $5,789 in school taxes for the 2009-10 school year, an increase of about $349.
   The majority of the budget’s increase was a result of a hike in the amount the district pays to send students to Princeton high School as well as an increase in the district’s wages and benefits, which saw a slight spike.
   School officials on hand for the election results couldn’t be more pleased with the news.
   ”I really appreciate, once again, the support of the community with the school,” said Chief School Administrator John Haney. “I think it was a responsible budget, and it was responsible to the taxpayers and also responsible to the students.”
   Most of the voters polled by The Cranbury Press on Tuesday were highly in favor of the budget.
   ”I think it was a responsible budget given what’s going on in the state of the economy,” said Cranbury resident Deanna Anderson. “We need to maintain the quality of education our children are getting.”
   In fact, many of the voters polled were parents who gave the school a thumbs-up for a job well done.
   ”I have a son in the school, and I think the school does a good job of taking care of where it allocates its funds,” said Laura Zurfluh.
   However, not everyone was pleased with the district’s numbers.
   Two young voters said they came out to vote against the budget not only on the principle they weren’t fans of the district, but because they thought the amount the school was asking for was too much.
   ”I went to Cranbury School, and it sucked, except for Mr. Gill (Jay Gilligan), he rocked,” said Cranbury resident Justin Hulick with a grin.
   Mr. Hulick, along with his friend and fellow former student, Adam Lawrence, said they were appalled at the amount of Cranbury’s budget, which was in the same neighborhood as surrounding districts like Princeton, a district that recently added a new addition to its high school.
   ”They want as much money as Trenton,” Mr. Lawrence said. “Trenton has how many schools — and (Cranbury’s) spending the same amount?”
   As for the prospective board members, all three candidates vying for the three three-year seats were voted in, facing just a handful of write-ins.
   Incumbents Austin Schraudenbach and Lynne Schwarz received 344 and 373 votes respectively, while newcomer Nicole Pormilli received 358 votes.
   ”I’m thrilled,” Ms. Pormilli said following the announcement. “I’m just happy to be able to represent my community.”