By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Lawrence Township residents will get a chance to weigh in on the Lawrence Township public school district’s proposed $70.6 million operating budget at a public hearing May 7 in the Lawrence High School library.
The hearing will begin at 7 p.m. Superintendent of Schools Crystal Edwards and Business Administrator Thomas Eldridge will be available, beginning at 6 p.m., to answer questions in advance of the hearing.
Although a hearing is being held on the proposed budget, the public will not vote on the tax levy to support the spending plan. The school board decided in 2012 to take advantage of a new state law that allows school districts to eliminate a vote on the tax levy, provided it does not exceed the state-mandated 2-percent cap.
The proposed 2014-15 spending plan is $3.1 million more than the current budget of $67.5 million. The main cost drivers are salaries and benefits, which account for 74 percent of the budget; transportation, tuition, services and supplies, which consumer 4 percent each; and capital outlay at 9 percent.
The $70.6 million budget, which is the first one to be prepared after last year’s township-wide property reassessment, sets the school district property tax rate at $1.36 per $100 of assessed value. The owner of a house assessed at the township average of $281,970 would pay $3,841 in school district property taxes.
The 2013-14 school district tax rate was $2.42, which meant the owner of a house assessed at the then-township average of $160,262 paid $3,878 in property taxes. The difference between the two tax rates translates into a $37 savings for 2014-15.
The proposed spending plan calls for $60.6 million to be raised through property taxes to support the 2014-15 budget, which is an increase of $1.1 million. Miscellaneous income accounts for $179,725 in revenue, and state aid increased by $80,820 — from $3.3 million to $3.4 million.
Mr. Eldridge, the school district business administrator, described the proposed 2014-15 budget as a “maintenance budget, to some extent.” There is money to replace textbooks and for new course offerings, such as robotics and Advanced Placement Spanish.
In special education, the emphasis is on the coordination of intervention services, such as behavior management training. There is also a movement toward a full-day pre-school program, and an emphasis on helping students who are dyslexic.
”This is not new to Lawrence Township, but it is new to New Jersey,” Mr. Eldridge said of the dyslexia program.
And there is also money in the budget — about $1.4 million — to pay for a turf athletic field, he said. That’s the reason the capital outlay item in the budget is proposed to increase from 4 percent of spending to 9 percent.

