School board expects $4M boost in state aid New textbooks, football field among funding priorities BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer OLD BRIDGE - The new school funding formula approved by state legislators earlier thismonth is expected bring a 20 percent increase in school aid to the township. "This $4 million will enable us to make some modest innovations and improvements, so that we won't have to ask the voters for any more money," Board ofEducation President Frank Piccillo said. "We [also] want to maintain our current services and programs." The School Funding Reform Act of 2008, approved Jan. 7 by lawmakers, changed the formula by which schools receive state aid in that the per-pupil amount of funding will be the same across the board, regardless of the overall financial status of a district. In the past, poorer communities, known as Abbott school districts, received a 20 percent increase in funding each year, and some of them overspent, according to Old Bridge school board member Abhishek Desai. "This time, it's looking like it'smore equitable for everybody across the board," Desai said. Piccillo said Old Bridge school officials havemaintained a lean budgetwhile offering students a high-quality education. Despite efforts to keep the school budget as low as possible, voters rejected it in April. It then went before the council for cuts. "Last year, in our efforts to develop a lean budget, we cut out textbook adoptions and replacements," Piccillo said. With the anticipated increase in funding, newtextbookswill be introduced in the coming year, according to Piccillo. Necessary work at Lombardi Field is anothermajor priority, he said. The school board has sent a letter toMiddlesex County Freeholder Director David B. Crabiel, Freeholder James Polos,who heads the state's Shared Services Committee, and Old Bridge Mayor Jim Phillips, inviting them to the Jan. 30 meeting of the board's Shared ServicesCommittee.At themeeting, school officialswill discuss goals for the Lombardi field project, which is slated to involve replacing the field surfacewith turf, and get- ting a new concession stand and bleachers. "The field is just totally destroyed," Piccillo said. Other possible projects will also be discussed at themeeting. Though the 2008-09 school budget will not necessarily be lower than the current one, due to uncontrollable expenses like teachers' salaries and the rising costs of utilities, Piccillo said the board will make every effort to keep it in line with cost-of-living increases. "We have to really inform the public that we really have nowhere else to cut," Piccillo said. "We're always losing by a couple of hundred votes when the budget fails." Piccillo said hewants the board to make an effort to seek out those voterswho support the budget but don't come out to vote because they don't think itwillmake a difference. In addition, he said more peoplewill likely support future budgets once they become informed about how well the district is doing as compared to the state average. "The state recognized that we provide a great educational bang for the buck," Piccillo said. "This newmoney is designed to help us even more, and the taxpayers as a result of that." In terms of economically disadvantaged and special-needs students, Piccillo said the district spendsmore on themthan is average throughout the state. "We're producing an efficient budget, but that does notmeanwe're spending less," Piccillo said.