Somerset Hills Schools Get Expected State Aid, Administrator Says

State aid figures released on Thursday for the 2013-14 school year matched the previous year's and so should have no impact on the proposed $39.9 million Somerset Hills schools' budget introduced at last week's Board of Education meeting, the school district's business administrator said.

On paper, the state aid figures for the Somerset Hills school district looked almost $140,000 less than the figure plugged in for last week's introduced budget. A public hearing and final vote to adopt the budget are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on March 27.

However, the state's Department of Education regular aid figure of $842,370 listed for the Somerset Hills district on Thursday did not include additional extraordinary aid, said Nancy Hunter, business administrator for Somerset Hills schools.

Overall, "Our total projected aid will be the same as the current year," Hunter said late on Thursday afternoon, shortly after the state released the aid figures. Last year's regular aid also was $842,370, she said.

Since the figure is the same, she said there is no impact on the budget introduced on Feb. 20, which included a total state aid figure of $979.498.

The 2013-14 budget as proposed keeps all programs intact and includes possibly one more teacher at the high school, Hunter said last week. But she noted the number of kindergarten classes at the Bedwell Elementary School next fall is due to be cut by one because of declining kindergarten enrollment.

The proposed school budget includes a 2-percent increase in next year's current fund, which stays under a state cap on local school budget increases, Hunter said in introducing the budget last week.

But a $112,000 reduction in debt payments due to refinancing brings the total overall increase in next year's budget down to about 1.7 percent, she said last week.

As of last week, Hunter said she did not have the impact of the proposed budget on the school tax rates in each of the three towns that sends students to the regional Somerset Hills schools district.