School tab carries
13-cent tax hike
Tax increase would be $187 on average
for Old Bridge residents
By sue m. morgan
Staff Writer

Old Bridge residents would see their property taxes increase by 13 cents under the $110.6 million tentative budget proposed by the Board of Education for the 2003-04 academic year.

The total budget, as introduced at last Thursday night’s school board meeting, consists of $104.7 million for the general fund, $2.92 million in the special revenue fund, and $2.98 million in debt service, according to documents released by the school district.

Essentially, voters will be asked to approve a total $68,623,529 tax levy to the district’s general fund. That fund allows the district’s 15 schools to continue operating and serving an ever-growing school population in the coming school year, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business Dr. R. Gregory Quirk.

Under the proposed budget, the school tax rate would increase by a total of 13 cents to $2.18 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The 13 cents includes a 9-cent hike for the general fund and 4 cents toward the debt service for the $66 million building project approved by voters in September 2001.

On the average township home, assessed at $144,000, the school taxes would increase by $187, from $2,952 to $3,139.

Voters are actually being asked to approve the 9-cent portion of the proposed 13-cent tax hike, Quirk explained, as the 4-cent portion for debt service was approved during the building referendum 18 months ago.

Quirk attributed the proposed 9-cent increase to growing operating costs and increased enrollment. An additional 156 students have come into the district since the current school year began, he said. Another 169 students are expected to enter the district’s schools for the 2003-04 year, according to a report issued by the state’s education department, Quirk pointed out.

With the increasing enrollment and the township’s population growing, the district anticipates the hiring of five additional teachers for the two high school campuses, Quirk added.

Also, for the third consecutive year, the district’s state aid remains frozen at $36.7 million, despite the increased enrollment, Quirk noted.

Without an increase in state aid, the district must now pass the heightened expenses of operating schools and educating a growing student body on to taxpayers.

However, the school board and administration managed to cut $608,395 from the tentative budget prior to its introduction, Quirk said. Those cuts included $96,000 for a supervisory position, $20,000 for a strep-throat prevention program, and $24,979 for a part-time clerk.

Another $317,416 in salaries and benefits will also be saved, thanks to a number of staff retirements expected to occur between February and June of this year, Quirk said. That amount was arrived at by taking the differential between the retiring salary and the expected salary of any new hires, he explained.

During the meeting, the board voted unanimously to eliminate a part-time middle school librarian position paying $50,000 in order to salvage a teaching position paying the same salary at the Jonas Salk Middle School planetarium. In exchanging the librarian for the teaching post, many board members expressed a strong desire to keep the planetariums open and accessible at both Salk and the Carl Sandburg Middle School.

"Our schools are unique in that we have planetariums at both middle schools," Quirk said.

Overall, the board has been "very, very responsible" in formulating the proposed budget, Quirk said.

"The board of education has worked very hard," Quirk said. "The administration started putting the budget together in July."

With one tax point equal to $316,276 in the budget, the board’s initial cuts of $608,395 add up to nearly two tax points alone, he stated.

A public hearing on the budget will be held March 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the television studio on the Old Bridge High School East campus.

Following that hearing, the school board is expected to adopt the budget, which will go before the voters in the annual school district election scheduled for April 15.