There are many positives as well..

[andrewd]

I know people tend to dwell on the negatives, especially when it comes to a school budget...but I think this article does a decent job of pointing out some of the positives in this years budget...and they need to be noticed as well.

I wanted to post this article also to open up the debate over this years school budget, and to see what questions might still be out there that perhaps I can help answer...



Extra state aid helps limit size of school tax increase

BY CLARE MARIE CELANO

Staff Writer

FREEHOLD- The Freehold Borough Board of Education was expected to introduce a $19.6 million budget for the 2008- 09 school year when it met on March 3.

The meeting occurred after the News Transcript's deadline.

District administrators said the budget would include a general fund of $16.7 million, special revenues of $2.1 million, and debt service payments of $795,000.

The 2007-08 budget totaled $17.4 million.

The 2008-09 budget looks vastly different from the 2007-08 budget in a good way, according to Superintendent of Schools Elizabeth O'Connell.

O'Connell said the budget presents property owners with "a small tax increase, provides the district with better services and includes new programs" for pupils.

"It's a 180-degree turn" from the 2007- 08 budget, she said.

Property owners in Freehold Borough will be asked to pay a total of $7.8 million in property taxes toward the general fund and $636,198 toward the debt service fund, for a total property tax levy of $8.4 million.

The amount of school taxes an individual property owner pays is based on the assessment of his property.

According to school district Business Administrator Veronica Wolf, the budget proposes to raise the K-8 school tax by 2.4 cents from 74.4 cents to 76.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The average house in Freehold Borough is assessed at $257,000. A person with a home assessed at that amount would see their school tax rise from $1,912 in 2007-08 to $1,973 in 2008-09. A person with a home assessed at $300,000 would see their school tax rise from $2,232 in 2007-08 to $2,304 in 2008-09.

The K-8 school tax is one component of the overall property tax bill which also includes municipal taxes, Monmouth County taxes, Freehold Regional High School District taxes and other assessments.

In response to requests from parents, staff members and the community, a full instrumental music program has been restored for students, according to O'Connell.

This year's budget news is considerably brighter than last year's largely because of an additional $1.5 million in state aid to be provided by New Jersey's new school funding formula. Administrators recently said the district could expect to receive $8.8 million in state aid for 2008- 09.

Wolf said even though the district stands to receive additional state aid in 2008-09, it will still be under what the state now refers to as the adequacy level. She said that according to the new state formula the district should be receiving about $11.8 million in state aid.

Board President Jim Keelan said he believes the district will be in a much better position in 2008-09 than it was in 2007-08.

"We are adding staff, programs and materials, not taking anything away," Keelan said. "The 2008-09 school budget builds on the $500,000 (in additional state funding) we fought for last year. Our new budget will still be $3 million less than what the new school funding formula has determined is required for our district.

"Hopefully, we can count on the state to bring us up 20 percent each year until we reach the adequacy level. We need the state to live up to its promise and to continue to fund and implement the new school funding formula year after year," the board president said.

Keelan said when he found out the school district would receive $1.5 million more in state funding for 2008-09 he asked O'Connell and Wolf to try and devise a budget that would not raise taxes at all.

"I live in this town, too, and I do not want my taxes going up either, but $1.5 million does not go that far and unfortunately we must raise taxes. Health insurance is going up 16 percent and pension contributions have gone up significantly.

"These are the costs that eat away at the $1.5 million (additional funding) and do not improve the quality of education we can provide for our children.We are bringing back less staff than we would like, but that is all we can afford. If we did not raise taxes from the borough residents we would have to cut another $300,000 out of our proposed 2008-08 budget. While any property tax increase is too much in New Jersey, hopefully $72 on a $300,000 house is not too painful," Keelan said.

On March 20 at 7 p.m. at the Park Avenue Elementary School the school board will hold a public hearing on the 2008-09 budget. Residents and other interested individuals will be able to comment on the budget at that time, prior to the board's formal adoption of the spending plan.

Residents will be asked to approve the 2008-09 general fund tax levy in the April 15 school election. Residents do not vote on the debt service tax levy as that is money the district is obligated to pay back on previously approved construction projects.

O'Connell said administrators do not anticipate having to place a second (supplemental funding) question on the ballot in order to provide everything that is needed in the district's three schools - the Park Avenue Elementary School, the Freehold Learning Center elementary school and the Freehold Intermediate School.

O'Connell said it is expected that a new curriculum in language arts literacy will be implemented during the 2008-09 school year. This will include new textbooks and instructional materials. She said the district has been unable to update this particular curriculum for some time.

O'Connell said that in 2008-09 she expects to be able to provide the borough's three principals with adequate funding for school supplies. She said this is another area that has been underfunded in recent years.

The superintendent said some preventative maintenance and school repairs that have been limited in recent years will be able to be completed during the 2008- 09 school year.

Administrators will hold off on adopting a new social studies curriculum for K- 5 students including textbooks until the 2009-10 school year. That will save $25,000.

In addition, four positions were cut in the district: an elementary school guidance counselor, a bilingual literacy teacher, a second grade teacher and an intermediate school reading coach.

As of September, the borough's K-8 school district had an enrollment of about 1350 students.

[admin]

Andrew wrote--

I know people tend to dwell on the negatives, especially when it comes to a school budget...but I think this article does a decent job of pointing out some of the positives in this years budget...and they need to be noticed as well.

I wanted to post this article also to open up the debate over this years school budget, and to see what questions might still be out there that perhaps I can help answer...

You are right Andrew, sometimes people dwell too much on negatives. The above is good news and we need it. Beyond that, I saw the Asbury Park press at the school the other night and I believe there will be some good press from that. There should be an article about the Citizens Academy, which has been great. When the article is posted, we will have some more very good positive things to talk about here.

More importantly, how to get the good things out to the general public?

One suggestion I have for the BOE-- We had that survey last year. We all got to see the results. What has been done with that information, and could the BOE do some PR related to it?

That would be a very good start that would directly address concerns people had in the survey.

My thoughts on the budget are as as follows. If the schools get the twenty percent from the state, asking for the max four percent increase in schools property tax will be a very tough sell. The article does try to make the case, but keep in mind that Comrade Corzine is throwing a hissy fit over the lack of support for his toll road sale. With him threatening to jack up property taxes, the schools may face a very worried voter base who are not receptive to any increases.

One other thing that jumps out at me is the increase in pension and health care for staff. I have been saying long enough that the unions had better get their act together and start fighting these increases and find ways to reduce costs for everyone, not just pass the buck the way they do. Such large increases have become way too normal and there is only so much tax payers will rightfully put up with. Those increases are not sustainable, take money out of class rooms, take money out of the wages of staff, and take money out of the pockets of fed up tax payers. The rank and file union workers better wake up, the bear will bite them in the butt one day.

Now, off my soap box.

[admin]

I wrote above

One suggestion I have for the BOE-- We had that survey last year. We all got to see the results. What has been done with that information, and could the BOE do some PR related to it?

A better way to put this, the BOE should be very aggressive in showing that they are responding to the survey. That in itself would be a very good PR initiative. make it louhd and clear that the schools are acting on the responses.

[andrewd]

holly said:

20% form the state and 4% from the homeowner.

Darlings, who is getting a rise, how much and are they married or single?

I'm assuming you meant to ask who's getting a raise...and the answer is that no one is getting a raise above or beyond their contracted increases.

Yes, we're getting 20% more from the state, and we're going for 4% from the local tax levy (which, remember, that does not mean that our schools are raising your total tax bill by 4%, just our share of it), but you still have to remember a couple of things.

First of all, the state did not give us an increase in state aid for 6 years in a row, and even with this high increase, and going out for the 4% from the local tax levy, our school district is still way below the state's newly established level of spending to achieve "adequacy".

If this new funding formula is carried forward in the coming years, we're actually looking at a 20% increase next year and the year after in order to get us to that "adequacy" level.