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SOUTH BRUNSWICK: District adopts $138.5 million budget

Proposed $138.5 million school budget for 2013-14

By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
   Board of Education members unanimously passed the proposed $138.5 million school budget for 2013-14 Monday night.
   Board President Stephen Parker was absent from the meeting.
   The spending plan, which Superintendent Dr. Gary McCartney said represented “a balancing” of district and taxpayer needs, will not increase the tax rate.
   ”Budget building requires a balancing of competing interests,” Dr. McCartney said during a public presentation of the plan. “This budget does that.”
   The budget includes $127.9 million in operating costs such as salaries, benefits, utilities and program expenses, $2.6 million in special program funding and $7.9 million in debt service costs, according to the district.
   It will also keep the tax rate the same as last year at $2.85 per $100 of assessed valuation, according to officials.
   That means the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 will pay $5,700 in property tax this year to support the schools.
   ”The (board’s) budget committee worked very hard on this,” Dr. McCartney said.
   Committee Chairman Dan Boyle said that the budget includes tentative agreements with all eight unions in the district.
   Members of the South Brunswick Education Association teachers union have been working without a contract since July 1, and have shown up at several recent board meetings to show solidarity.
   Mr. Boyle said, however, that all of the unions worked well with the board to come up with the agreements.
   The district was able, officials said, to keep the tax rate flat because of savings realized in several areas including some $700,000 since hiring an energy consultant and not having to put aside as much for projected charter school enrollments.
   That line item dropped some 81 percent from last year’s $1.6 million to just $297,112 for the 2013-14 school year.
   More than 100 students were projected to attend charter schools last year, but two of the schools, including the controversial Princeton International Academy Charter School which was denied approval last year by the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, lowered that number to 27 for next year, according to the district.
   In total, the district was able to save some $21 million, according to the presentation.
   Board members also announced a $50 drop in the total amount a family must pay in activity and AP course fees for next year.
   The current cap of $300 per family will drop to $250, according to officials.
   Only one member of the public spoke during the public hearing on the plan.
   Lisa Grieco-Rodgers used the opportunity to criticize Gov. Chris Christie for only increasing aid to the district by $1 compared to last year’s state aid figure.
   Ms. Rodgers and three other parents gathered in front of the district office on Blackhorse Lane last week to ask the legislature to force Gov. Christie to fund the schools at the full amount of the 2008 School Funding Reform Act.
   According to Ms. Rodgers, the district is still owed between $2 million to $8 million of the full funding amount.
   While the school board was able to adopt a budget without a tax increase, the township is continuing hearings on its $48 million budget.
   That plan currently has a three-cent per $100 of assessed valuation increase in the tax rate.
   Unlike the school district, however, the township has more time to work on its plan.
   Dr. McCartney said that even though the district no longer holds a public referendum on its budget in April, the board still has to submit it to the county superintendent by March 29.
   He said the timetable was designed so that the budget could be placed on the April ballot.