STOCKTON: School spending plan gets hearing Monday

By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
   The Stockton Borough School Board of Education has proposed a tentative 2011-12 budget that would raise the tax levy by 2 percent, calling for the average homeowner to pay about $375 more in property taxes.
   Teachers — the school has four full-time — will receive a slight increase based on a contract revision that occurred last June, according to the district. The increase will cost the district about $6,700 for the year, said board President Jim Gallagher.
   ”On average, Stockton’s teacher salaries and compensation are among the lowest in Hunterdon County,” Mr. Gallagher said. “We appreciate our experienced teaching staff and all that they do for the Stockton community.”
   The board will discuss the budget during a public hearing March 28 at 7 p.m. at the school. Changes may be made to the spending plan at that time, Mr. Gallagher said.
   The school election will be held April 27.
   The board and the teachers signed a three-year contract last spring that gave teachers pay increases of 1 percent, 2 percent and 3 percent. The agreement was revised in June, changing the increases to 2.1 percent, 3.1 percent and 4.1 percent. Without the revision, the teachers this school year would have ended up with a salary decrease because of a state-mandated 1.5-percent deduction for health benefits contributions.
   Chief School Administrator Suzanne Ivans’ 2010-15 contract calls for no increase the first three years of the agreement, followed by .5 percent and 1 percent in the final two years respectively. But she also will receive “a one-time only conditional increase of 1.1 percent” on July 1 to offset the 1.5 percent deduction for health insurance, according to the district.
   ”We’ve attempted to control costs as well as we can,” Mr. Gallagher said. “Our administrators understand the pressures that New Jersey taxpayers are facing, and have agreed to salary freezes.”
   Stockton will draw $10,536 from its surplus to help balance the budget. That will leave approximately $45,000 in the rainy day fund, Mr. Gallagher said.
   The district says it will continue to reduce costs by sharing and contracting services, such as its business administrator, music teacher, child study team and speech and occupational services.
   ”We’ve been through the budget carefully and have cut spending or kept spending levels flat wherever possible,” Mr. Gallagher said. “We also continue to share services with neighboring districts, which helps to keep our costs down. However, there are certain state-mandated costs that we cannot control. For 2011-12 these are projected to increase by 5 percent or more.”
   The district will receive $6,759 in state aid. Last year the school received no aid, but the previous year it received about $14,244.
   ”Please note, while it is true that our state aid has been increased this coming year, this comes with the caveat that our ‘increase’ of $6,759 is still an overall decrease from past years,” Ms. Ivans said. “This is due to the loss of 100 percent of our state aid for the 2010-11 school year, which was a loss of $14,244.
   ”Additional money was lost in the budget year 2009-10 when the state did not fully fund aid it had committed to schools, ‘deferring’ the last payment, for a loss of $1,187. This is the second time this has happened, so we are now two months behind in state aid payments, which we anticipate will never be recouped. While these figures may seem small compared to some budgets, they are not to us,” Ms. Ivans noted.
   The proposed budget carries a tax levy of $649,709. The tax rate would be 68 cents per $100 of assessed property value. The owner of a house assessed at the average of $373,504 would pay $2,539.83 to support the school.
   Last year, when the average assessment was $322,466 and the tax rate was 67.11 cents per $100 of assessed property value, the average homeowner paid $2,164.07.
   Last year, voters shot down the school’s proposed budget that called for a 4-percent increase. As a result, the Borough Council and the board agreed to a cut of $5,700 that brought the increase down to 3 percent.
   Enrollment this year is 42, and it is projected to be 48 next year.