By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
The state aid numbers are in for New Jersey schools and the districts of Princeton, Montgomery and West Windsor-Plainsboro were hoping for more than they received to compensate for the state aid reduction Gov. Chris Christie imposed two years ago.
Under Gov. Christie’s proposed $32.1 billion 2013 fiscal budget, an additional $213 million in aid was allotted for public schools.
But distribution of that aid for more than 500 of the state’s districts was not even, with schools receiving a wide range of increases and decreases based on the governor’s revamped funding formula.Locally, Montgomery came out on top with a 19.4 percent increase, followed by West Windsor-Plainsboro’s 18.2 percent increase. Princeton Public Schools’ state aid is approximately up 3.3 percent from last year.
That translates into $3.3 million for Princeton, $7.2 million for West Windsor-Plainsboro and $3.9 million for Montgomery.
The districts were grateful for the state aid, but were hoping for larger amounts to help recover from the aid reduction of 2010.
In an effort to reduce the state’s $10.7 billion deficit, Gov. Christie slashed funding for schools by $820 million. Princeton, West Windsor-Plainsboro and Montgomery school districts lost around $3.7 million, $7.6 million and $3.5 million respectively.
Stephanie Kennedy, Princeton Schools’ business administrator, said the district was hoping for an additional third installment of $700,000 to get back up to the 75 percent level of which they were cut two years ago.
”Our aid increased by only $100,000,” said Princeton Superintendent Judy Wilson. “While every dollar matters greatly in this tight budget, this new aid brings us only to the 54 percent level of restored aid.”As a result, Ms. Kennedy had to change some of the capital projects the board was hoping to accomplish. The board will also be unable to increase staffing positions as it had hoped.
President Board of Education president Rebecca Cox appeared unenthusiastic about the slight increase in aid.
”It’s an increase of almost nothing the local taxpayers once again have to shoulder more of the school budget,” she said.
Larry Shanok, West Windsor-Plainsboro’s finance and board secretary, said the district used to receive $10.7 million.
”We appreciate the increase in state aid, but we’re still not at a level that reflects the amount of which they cut us,” he said. “The good news is that it is up this year, but it’s still only a fraction of where we were before.”
With a tentative 2012 budget facing a 1.98 percent increase, Mr. Shanok said the district would use part of the aid to reduce the amount of tax levy.
”The increase in state aid along with the frugality of squeezing costs last year will allow us to have enough tax relief so that the overall tax levy will be declining for the next year by almost $1.5 million,” he added.
West Windsor-Plainsboro also plans on using another part of the aid to build capital reserves to support the infrastructure of the district.
Montgomery Superintendent Earl Kim said the state owes the district $8 million, according to the funding formula, but they are only receiving half that amount.
”We are rare in that we are spending under what the state deems an adequate school budget, yet our taxpayers are paying over their local share two factors that drive the amount of state aid increase received,” he said. “If we got the full amount of state aid due to us, our taxpayers would get a tax reduction that would last forever.”
The Montgomery Township school district plans on spending most of the aid increase on tax relief. The rest will be spent on paying off the debt service obligation, fuel costs, the state grant assessment, security for the high school, school grounds projects, the April election and purchasing equipment outright instead of through lease purchasing.
”I hope as the state comes out of the recession and is able to increase its income tax revenues that fund our schools, the state will do its share and fund its formula,” said Mr. Kim.

