Kaitlyn Kanzler, Special Writer
CRANBURY The Cranbury Board of Education decided to set the introductory meeting for the budget for Feb. 28 after learning the preliminary budget needed to be submitted to the county by March 5.
According to business administrator Joyce Picariello, the board’s next meeting was scheduled for March 6, the day after the deadline.
”We should get state aid numbers [Wednesday],” Ms. Picariello said at Tuesday night’s board meeting. “So we could not have approved numbers tonight because we do not have all the numbers.”
According to Ms. Picariello, the numbers need to be submitted prior to the next board meeting, necessitating another meeting for next week, which will be strictly limited to the budget.
Another problem that faced the board in regards to the budget was the public hearing date. The originally scheduled March 20 meeting fell outside the public hearing dates, which are between March 22-29.The board agreed to cancel the meeting and arrange it to fall within the public hearing dates.
The public hearing for the budget will be on March 27 at 7 p.m. in the Cranbury School large group room, instead of March 20.
The school has around $175,000 in state aid that was deferred from last year after receiving the aid only several days before the budget was due. These state aid funds will help the board stay under the 2 percent tax cap.
”We’re planning that the school budget will be flat,” board member Lynne Schwarz said.
At the last meeting, the board voted to keep school board and budget elections in April instead of moving them to the November election.

