By Frank Mustac, Contributor
School district officials at the Hopewell Valley Regional School District are getting ready for the 2017-18 budget season, as Superintendent Thomas Smith recently delivered a presentation on the preliminary spending plan., Superintendent Smith said the process was starting later than expected this year, due to setbacks originating in Trenton., “Our budget timeline has been pushed back a little bit from previous years,” he said during the Jan. 23 meeting. “The governor’s address has been pushed back. That is really what provides us with guidance.”, Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to give his state budget address on Feb. 28. Public school districts across the state will be notified of the amount of state aid they will receive on March 2., Total state aid for the Hopewell Valley district in the 2016-17 school year was approximately $2.9 million. Last year’s total budget for the district was about $80 million., Dr. Smith said the preliminary budget will be formally presented before the school board during a public hearing on March 20., A copy of the preliminary budget has to be submitted to the state superintendent of Mercer County schools the same day., District officials tentatively scheduled April 24 for a final public hearing on the 2017-18 budget, where a vote for its final adoption may take place., Superintendent Smith said the weeks between the budget’s introduction and final passage is when the public will get a chance to examine the document and provide feedback to officials., “The community has an opportunity to give feedback and discuss our budget before the final budget adoption,” he said. “Although the timeline has been pushed back a little bit later than in previous years, the spread of time is about the same from the beginning of the discussion to the end of the discussion.”, The focus in the school district when developing budgets over the past seven years, Dr. Smith said, has been providing students with “opportunities in athletics, the arts, and social emotional development – all in support of our academic mission.”, “We’re also supporting our staff to improve teaching and learning,” he said., About 75 percent of the school budget for the district, in which 3,672 students are currently enrolled, is allocated to staffing and benefits, according to the superintendent., “Another a big budget item, when you have a school district with three buildings that are 90-plus years old and all the others except for Stony Brook in the 50-to-60-year-old range, is capital projects,” Dr. Smith said. “We have been able to limit this impact through a referendum, however, capital projects due to regular routine maintenance are necessary as part of our annual budget.”, The superintendent was referring to the $35 million school facilities bond referendum that was passed by voters in Hopewell Borough, Pennington Borough and Hopewell Township during a special election held last September. The bond is slated to fund repair work, construction, alterations and other capital improvements at several schools in the district., Dr. Smith touted the district’s academic accomplishments, which includes the implementation of a student-centered instructional model; the development of an elementary science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program; and a high school performing arts program., More students, he said, are taking advanced placement (AP) tests, and the district has provided more extra activities and co-curricular activities., “The board of education has been tremendously supportive of adding activities outside of the school day,” the superintendent said. “While other school districts have been cutting activities, we have been looking for ways to not only add opportunities, but also take away some of the barriers, for example, the activity fee that some people were paying to participate.”, In recent years, he said, the district has added a number of extra-curricular activities, including “boys volleyball and girls volleyball; numerous clubs and activities; indoor color guard and drum corps” while eliminating the activity fee., “We have more students participating in more activities than ever before, and we’ve been able to accomplish that in the lowest budget increases in recent history.”
