Hanover Park School Budget Approved With 1.81% Increase

The Hanover Park Regional High School Board of Education unanimously approved a budget for the 2013-14 school year Wednesday night with a 1.81 percent tax levy increase.

William Albert, Jr., the business administrator for the district, said the Morris County executive superintendent approved the proposed budget as it was submitted after the March 6 meeting.

The tax impact is 4 cents per $100 of assessed value in East Hanover, 7 cents per $100 in Florham Park and 9 cents per $100 of assessed value in Hanover.

The full amount of money to be raised by taxes in the 2013-14 school year is $26,892,947, only a little over half a million dollars more than the $26,365,634 raised in the 2012-13 school year.

Regular instruction, employee benefits, facilities and transportation, special education, special programs and athletic programs are the biggest expenditures for the district.

The budget does not draw on banked cap from former years, and in fact adds funds to the banked cap. Currently the district has $830,274 in banked cap, which they can use to help cover costs in future years.

With the new $1,717,714 contribution from the 2013-14 budget, that cap bank amount goes up to $2,547,988.

Banked cap must be used within three years, and Albert said use of these funds "is something we're going to have to consider in the future."

The budget includes a net $621,806 in state aid, which is $823,149 less than what the district received in the 2009-10 budget.

Besides enrollment growth, the costs of transportation, salaries, health insurance, textbooks, special education and other supplies also grew this year, driving expenses up 3.02 percent in the district.

An estimated increase is included below, along with the allocation of expenses for 2013-14 and 2012-13: