BORDENTOWN CITY The Bordentown Regional School District Board of Education introduced a $21.8 million budget for the 2001-2 school year Feb. 28, resulting in possible school tax rate increases for the district’s three sending districts.
By:David Koch
A public hearing on the budget will be held March 28 at 7 p.m. in the MacFarland Junior School on Crosswicks Street.
"We expect a lot of changes in the budget between now and March 28," said Superintendent John Polomano.
The school tax rate could increase from $1.88 to $1.95 per $100 of assessed property in Bordentown Township. The owner of a house at the township average at $122,500 would pay $2,388 in school taxes this year.
In Bordentown City, the school tax rate would increase from last year’s $1.99 to $2.03 per $100 of assessed property this year. A homeowner at the township average of $105,689 would pay $2,143 in school taxes.
Fieldsboro taxpayers would pay $2.08 in school taxes per $100 of assessed property value, an increase in nine cents from last year’s tax rate. A homeowner at the township average of $86,628 would pay $1,801 in school taxes this year.
There was a net decrease of $129,900 in state aid. This year, the budget allocates $210,000 from the budget surplus, leaving $450,000.
"I don’t want to go too much lower than that, because of the unknowns," said School Business Administrator and Board Secretary Peggy Ianoale.
The school budget includes $90,000 for the hiring of two new foreign language teachers at MacFarland Junior School.
The two additional teachers will allow every seventh and eighth grader to take either French or Spanish. Both languages are currently offered only as an elective.
"There was always a concern that only certain kids could take a foreign language," said Bordentown Superintendent of Schools John Polomano.
Residents can vote on the school budget and Board of Education elections on April 17 from 3 to 9 p.m.
Voters in Bordentown Township can vote at the high school located on Dunns Mill Road.
Residents of Bordentown City will vote in the Clara Barton Elementary School on Crosswicks Street, while Fieldsboro voters will vote at the borough’s municipal building on Washington Street.
"It’s a good budget, and the tax increase is not much," said Mr. Polomano.
