UPPER FREEHOLD – The Upper Freehold Regional School District Board of Education has moved $2,351 from its surplus fund (savings) and applied it to the 2018-19 budget to compensate for an unexpected reduction in state aid for the upcoming school year.
Upper Freehold Regional serves children from Upper Freehold Township and Allentown in kindergarten through 12th grade. Residents of Millstone Township attend the district’s Allentown High School through a send-receive relationship.
Under Gov. Phil Murphy’s initial proposal in March, the school district’s state aid package for the 2018-19 school year was expected to total $5.847 million. Using that number and following directives from state officials, district administrators crafted a $38.7 million budget from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019.
However, Upper Freehold Regional’s state aid allocation changed following negotiations between Murphy and leaders in the state Legislature resulted in a law which changed New Jersey’s school funding regulations and trimmed the district’s state aid to $5.845 million, a decrease of $2,351.
According to district administrators, the $2,351 reduction was entirely in transportation aid that would have been received from the state.
On July 25, board members approved a motion to acknowledge the adjusted state aid notice and the $2,351 loss in transportation aid. To compensate for the decrease, board members authorized the appropriation of an additional $2,351 from the district’s unassigned general surplus fund to cover the loss in revenue.
As a result of using surplus funds to cover the reduction in state aid, no additional changes in appropriations for the 2018-19 school budget are required, according to district administrators.