HILLSBOROUGH: Math teachers added in final school budget

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
   Two math teachers are back in the school budget; Chinese dance, art and culture assemblies are out.
   School board members made last-minute changes to next year’s school budget before adopting it March 21.
   They added authorization to hire two teachers to help struggling math students at the high school.
   To offset the expense, the district will discontinue the approximately $108,000 contract with the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company for cultural enrichment programs at each of the buildings, Superintendent Jorden Schiff said, and look for other savings in supply and instruction areas.
   He said he didn’t know how the money would be applied to the math program. Smaller class sizes or another elective for math support are two ideas, he said.
   The 2013-14 school budget is now in place. There will be no April election for the voters to approve the local tax levy to support the plan.
   The $114 million spending plan was introduced March 11, and the school board held to the bottom line figures for spending and revenue.
   Math instruction concerns the district, particularly since about one-half of high school graduates attending Raritan Valley Community College must take remedial math courses, Superintendent Jorden Schiff said.
   Dr. Schiff has said the main reason the budget could hire any new staff in the next year was a projected $900,000 savings in busing costs.
   He said the budget continues its long-range technology plan by giving tablet computers to another 10 percent of middle and high-schoolers, adding classes for Chinese language instruction at the intermediate and high schools, hiring tech trainers and implementing a new teacher and administrator evaluation system as required by state law.
   The proposed budget would increase property taxes by $53 on the “average” Hillsborough assessed house at $368,700, he said. The increase is about $14 for each $100,000 of valuation.
   The proposed tax levy increases by 0.5 percent and, in fact, is $425,000 lower than the maximum it could have risen.