Freehold Twp. K-8 board adopts $73.73M budget

By CLARE MARIE CELANO

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — The Freehold Township K-8 School District Board of Education has unanimously adopted a $73.73 million budget for the 2014-15 school year.

Members of the public commented on the budget during a meeting on April 29, after which the board voted to adopt the spending plan.

The budget carries a total tax levy of $63.80 million. This is the amount to be collected from residential and commercial property owners to support the operation of the school district in the upcoming year.

The 2013-14 budget totaled $71.93 million with a tax levy of $61.95 million.

Freehold Township expects to receive $5.35 million in state aid for 2014-15, up from $5.27 million in 2013-14.

The 2014-15 budget funds an expansion of the district’s middle school math program. Capital improvements include the installation of security enhancements at all schools; heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades at the Eisenhower Middle School; and a boiler replacement at the Barkalow Middle School.

Assistant Business Administrator Ilene Tepper said the district will add 8.4 middle school teachers, three special education teachers and five teacher assistants to its staff. The budget also includes a full-time grounds employee, a registered nurse and two technology technicians.

Tepper said the district will use a banked tax levy cap of $622,423 to fund the expansion of the middle school math program.

The banked tax levy cap represents tax money the school district could have collected in past years, but did not. The ability to collect that money was essentially “banked” and the money will now be collected as part of the 2014-15 tax levy.

Although the 2014-15 tax levy exceeds the state’s 2 percent cap, it exceeds the cap because of the use of the banked tax levy and therefore the budget was not subject to a vote by residents.

Initial figures provided by the administration indicated that the K-8 school tax rate would increase from $1.12 to $1.17 per $100 of assessed valuation.

Updated figures provided on April 29 indicate that the K-8 school tax rate will increase from $1.12 to $1.15 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The increase in the tax rate means that the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 will see his K-8 school tax increase from $2,240 in 2013-14 to $2,300 in 2014-15.

The owner of a home that is assessed at $400,000 will see his K-8 school tax increase from $4,480 in 2013-14 to $4,600 in 2014-15.

The owner of a home that is assessed at $600,000 will see his K-8 school tax increase from $6,720 in 2013-14 to $6,900 in 2014-15.

A previous article indicated that no programs were being cut in the 2014-15 budget, according to information provided by administration.

However, two programs, the family and consumer science program and the tech education program, will be eliminated. The cuts go hand-in-hand with other changes administrators will make to accommodate a new block schedule that will include longer periods of math and language arts.

The schools’ start and end times will also be adjusted to fit the new block schedule.

Comments during the public hearing included residents asking about increases in special education costs, administrative costs and teachers’ salaries, among other issues.

A group of residents from the Riviera adult community on Jackson Mills Road, who referenced a hefty hike in their school taxes in 2013-14, attended the meeting.

Riviera resident Maria Martino said she was “hit badly last year” and “it is becoming burdensome.” She questioned an increase in special education costs.

Riviera resident Barbara Feldman questioned an increase of $300,000 in administrative costs.

Superintendent of Schools Ross Kasun said the increase encompassed administrative salaries in addition to equipment and various supplies.

Feldman said the cost seemed “excessive” and she asked if the costs included additional positions in the department.

Kasun said the costs did not include additional positions in the department.

Riviera resident Ed Licht also asked about special education costs.

Kasun said the cost to educate a child with special needs can be expensive, reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the child’s needs.

Resident Amy Chen-Kung said she believes

Freehold Township’s teacher salaries are “very high” compared to other districts.

Kasun said Freehold Township’s teacher salaries fall “right in the middle,” with teachers in southern New Jersey paid less and teachers in northern New Jersey paid more.

Resident Mary Cozzolino said she was glad she attended a public budget workshop presented by school officials to inform residents about the budget. She said the workshop was helpful and advised residents to attend a budget workshop next year.

Kasun said creating the budget is “a challenging balancing act between two often competing interests, providing the resources necessary to maintain excellence in education for our children and exercising fiscal responsibility in order to minimize the impact on the taxpayers.”

“The work of our administrative team and board for the past three budgets to include only essential elements that supported our goals, not going to [the tax levy] cap, a very successful negotiations process, and reducing expenses and increasing revenues all helped to make our plans come together and make the goal a reality,” he said.

“By focusing on our goals and making some very challenging decisions during our two meaningful budget workshops, we were able to reduce an additional $863,000 from our first workshop and still keep the initiatives and programs that are critical to support our goals and educational programs,” Kasun said.

Board President Kay Poklemba-Holtz said the 2014-15 budget is fiscally responsible to taxpayers, yet prepares students to move forward in the areas of math, technology and language arts.

“Our district understands the importance of math and its role in science and a technological driven world,” she said. “Included in the 2014-15 budget is a change to the middle school schedule to accommodate an increase in the minutes devoted to math instruction. This has been a goal of the board for several years.

“Working in conjunction with our faculty during our last contract negotiations, our teachers increased the length of their school day and instructional minutes in the classroom,” Poklemba-Holtz said.

Tepper said the additional instructional time is included in the Freehold Township Education Association’s 2013-16 contract.

As of March, there were 4,053 pupils enrolled in the district. The enrollment in October 2013 was 4,050 pupils, and the enrollment in October 2012 was 4,139 pupils, according to information provided by district administrators.