School Budget Hearing Set for Hammarskjold

There may not be a school election this year, but residents will still get their say on the 2012-13 school budget.

The Board of Education will introduce its budget at 7 p.m. tonight (Thursday, March 22), at the . The $131,176,099 proposal calls for $110,437,402 to be raised by taxes and carries a tax rate increase of 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Under that rate, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $100,000 can expect to pay an additional $100 in school taxes next year.

Under the new rules, school budgets would go to voters only if the district requests a spending increase of more than 2 percent. This year’s proposal increases

According to the budget, which can be found at the , the district will pay $1.514 million to provide full-day kindergarten, a 70 percent increase from the current year. However, some of that will be offset by a decrease in the amount paid for instructional aids for kindergarten, $27,325 for 2012-13, down $239,092 from the previous year.

will be funded through budget offsets, including reductions in enrollment teaching staff and support staff. Those offsets equal approximately $900,000, which will go toward the $1 million needed for full-day kindergarten.

The district also will decrease the amount it pays for the cultural arts—which includes the poetry festival, child assault programs, sixth grade science trip, social studies enactments and PTA matching funds—from $167,387 to $154,236, a decrease of $13,151. Classroom materials spending also will decrease from $1.409 million to $1.362 million, a decrease of $46,675.

Another decrease is in the amount the district pays for salaries of school administrators, which includes principals, assistant principals department chairs and the special education director. It expects to pay $4.909 million for the upcoming school year, down $43,583 from the previous year.

For special education, the district will decrease the amount it spends on the Learning and Language Disabilities Special Education Program, from $434,246 for the current year to $413,805 for the 2012-13 year, a decrease of $204,441. It also expects to decrease the amount it spends for students with multiple disabilities from $499,069 to $479,069, and the amount it pays for the Resource Rooms, from $7.423 million to $7.077 million. The budget also includes $1.255 million for autism services, an increase of $124,712 from the previous year

Overall, the district expects to pay $9,974,165 for Special Education Instruction, down $185,236 from the previous year.

For total Related Special Education Services, including teachers, occupational and physical therapist, classroom supplies and a contracted speech teacher, the district has budgeted $2.111 million, $36,341 more than the previous year. For the upcoming year, East Brunswick will pay $2.590 million for child study teams, an increase of $107,443 from the $2.482 million it is paying for the current year.

The district also expects to pay more for the extraordinary, supplementary special education services, which includes out of district students, student assigned nurses and the NJ Commission for the Blind services. It expects to pay $1.856 million for the 2012-13 school year, up $301,878 from the current year.

For Administrative Information Technology, which includes CATV maintenance, equipment repair and maintenance, network management and workshop registrations, the district will pay $1.608 million, up $24,1689 from the $1.584 million it paid for the current school year.

Revenue for this year’s spending plan includes $17,678,170 in state aid, $1.977 million in fund balance, $500,000 in extraordinary aid, $207,525 in fees assessed, $80,000 in tuition collected from out-of-district students attending East Brunswick and $144,000 in other fees, as well as a tax levy of $110,437,402.