JACKSON — The Township Com-mittee and the Board of Education have reached a tentative agreement on the board’s defeated 2002-03 school year budget.
The proposed budget, which called for a 2.7-cent increase in the school tax rate, was defeated by voters on April 16.
By law, the voters’ rejection of the budget sent it to the municipal governing body for review and recommendations for cuts.
At Monday’s meeting of the governing body, Committeeman Marvin Kra-kower said members of both public bodies have been meeting over the past few weeks to review the school spending plan.
"We have had some good meetings, we have had some hard meetings," Krakower said. "Both sides are constantly keeping the children in mind during these meetings. Through the cooperation of all the people involved we have come upon a cut that was agreeable to the members of the board and to the committee."
Krakower declined to elaborate on the planned reductions to the budget because he said the cut has not been discussed with all the members of both bodies.
There members of the committee and three members of the board worked on the budget review.
Krakower said the content of the discussions need to be shared with the remaining members of both groups and then "we will go from there."
Although he wouldn’t comment on the amount of the cuts to be made or where the cuts will come from, Krakower said the planned reductions would not include any teachers.
"Not one teacher will be cut," the committeeman said. "Not one kid will lose one teacher. That is something we should all be very proud of."
The board’s proposed 2002-03 budget totaled $101.1 million with a local tax levy of $44.9 million. That tax levy would have translated into a 2.7-cent increase per $100 of assessed valuation in the school tax rate.
The budget was defeated by voters on April 16, 2,150 to 1,244.
School board member Michael Hanlon said residents could have been upset at the thought of another tax increase after just voting on a $100 million construction referendum that will provide a new elementary school and a new high school — among other improvements — for the K-12 Jackson school district.