ROBBINSVILLE: Board adopts $31.5M budget

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   ROBBINSVILLE — The Board of Education is asking residents to approve a $31.5 million general fund school tax levy for 2011-12 that is $617,680 higher than the current year and within the state’s new 2 percent cap law.
   The school board voted 9-0 last week in favor of the 2011-12 spending plan, which now goes to voters for approval Wednesday, April 27.
   The new tax rate would be $1.4332 per $100 in assessed valuation, meaning a home assessed at the new townshipwide average of $385,000 would pay $5,518 a year in school taxes. This represents an increase of $257 a year for that same home, according to Bob DeVita, the school business administrator.
   Under the current state education aid formula, 92 percent of the cost of running Robbinsville schools is borne by local property taxpayers, Mr. DeVita said.
   The 2011-12 budget before voters restores a handful of the 26 staff positions cut during last year’s school budget crisis. Class sizes at the high school, where enrollment will climb by 55 students to 865 in September, are already in the mid-30s for some history and English classes and in the 40s for some gym classes.
   The budget would reduce those class sizes by making a part-time English teacher full time and hiring a history and physical education/special education teacher.
   At Pond Road Middle School, where the guidance counselor-to-student ratio for grades four to eight has grown to 600-to-1, the hiring of one student assistance counselor would help reduce the high caseload.
   At Sharon Elementary School, one literacy support teacher would be hired for students who need extra help in reading.
   The budget also allocates funds for curriculum and technology upgrades that were cut from last year’s budget, sets aside more money for building maintenance and saves for future capital improvements, such as the modular classrooms that are expected to be needed at Sharon School within the next few years.
   The student activity fees the district instituted last year for participation in clubs and sports would remain unchanged for 2011-12. These fees vary, depending on the type and number of activities that students join, but are capped at $300 a year for high school students and $150 a year for middle school students.
   Two new Advanced Placement courses would be offered at the high school — probability and statistics and psychology — bringing the total number of AP courses available at RHS to 13, a number still significantly less than what many comparable districts provide, officials said.
   By comparison, Montgomery High School, which is placed in the same “district factor group” as RHS by the state Department of Education, provides students with 27 AP offerings, officials said.
   The overall school budget totals $39.33 million, officials said. This includes a general fund budget of $34.44 million, a debt service fund of $4.45 million and a special revenue fund of $447,515.
   The general fund’s tax levy — the only part of the budget subject to voter approval April 27 — is $31.5 million. That represents a 2 percent increase over the current year’s $30.9 million levy.
   Debt service, which is also part of the tax rate, is not subject to voter approval because the debt previously was authorized when voters approved construction referenda.
   Most residents at the March 22 public hearing did not address the budget’s spending priorities or the proposed tax rate. Instead, the vast majority of questions were about the new before- and after-school program the district is launching, Robbinsville Extended Day (RED).
   Schools Superintendent Steven Mayer told numerous questioners that RED was going to be a separate, self-supporting program that will be paid for by the families who use the service, not all taxpayers.
   Joe Mollica, of Annie Lane, asked Mr. Mayer if Robbinsville is pursuing any shared-services agreements with other school districts to reduce operating costs. He noted the Upper Freehold Regional School District and the Millstone School District have agreed to share an assistant superintendent for curriculum next year.
   Board of Education President Michael Reca noted Robbinsville already has “transportation jointures” with Hamilton, East Windsor and West Windsor to coordinate bus service for some private school students.
   As for sharing top administrators, smaller districts like Robbinsville with fewer staff are more apt to be looking to purchase part-time services from a larger district than that the other way around, Mr. Mayer said.
   ”We only have one supervisor of curriculum for the whole district while many districts around have more than that,” Mr. Mayer said. “But that is something we are working on because there’s expertise (in neighboring districts) in say, world languages, that we could take advantage of without hiring a full-time person.”
   Robbinsville also has submitted an application to the state to become a CHOICE district, which, if approved, would enable it to accept 10 freshmen from other communities into RHS’ high school engineering program. In four years, that number would be expanded to 40 students.
   ”There are some state funds that support a program like that, which would bring dollars to the district and also help us to expand an important program,” Mr. Mayer said.