By John Tredrea, Special Writer
WEST AMWELL — Nearly $384,000 in additional state aid the South Hunterdon Regional High School District will receive will be used for tax relief next year, Superintendent Nancy Gartenberg said.
The additional state aid includes $67,754 in additional transportation aid and $315,084 in School Choice Aid, which South Hunterdon will receive for accepting students in grades seven-12 who do not live in the district, but want to attend South Hunterdon Regional High School.
The students must live within 20 miles of the high school, the superintendent said. The School Choice program covers the costs of South Hunterdon schooling them.
”We now have 25 of those students committed to come here starting this fall,” the superintendent said Friday. “We can take up to 30 of them. Ten of the School Choice students we’ll take this fall are from Trenton. They’re also coming from Ewing, East Amwell, Delaware Township and other towns.”
Ms. Gartenberg said the responsibility for transporting the students to school in South Hunterdon belongs to the districts in which the students live. Those districts have the option of either transporting the students themselves or paying the parents or guardians of the students the amount it would cost to transport them. That payment is known as aid in lieu of busing.
APPROVED unanimously at the July 21 meeting of the South Hunterdon Regional School Board was the hiring of music teacher Matthew Petrozelli for the 2011-12 school year at an annual salary of $46,601.
”He’s the whole package,” Ms. Gartenberg said enthusiastically, noting there were some “terrific candidates” among the 70 applicants for the job.
Also approved unanimously at the meeting was the revised contract of South Hunterdon’s school business administrator, Kerry Sevilis. Under the contract, which has been approved by the county superintendent of schools, Ms. Sevilis’ annual salary for 2011-12 will be $93,634.
Drainage work for the high school football field also was approved unanimously. The maximum amount that can be spent is $8,700. The need to do the work was discovered while other drainage work on the field was being done, Ms. Sevilis said.
