BH School Tax Cuts Bigger Than Predicted

unanimously adopted the 2012/2013 school budget at a formal hearing last Thursday, with a tax decrease even less than first proposed.

School Board President John Sincaglia said the owner of a home assessed around $307,000 in Berkeley Heights would see a $16 decrease in their tax bill under the adopted $45 million budget.

The original decrease was adopted on March 1. But on March 5, Sincaglia said the district received word that payment to the State Public Employee’s Retirement System was reduced.

“That’s the state pension fund for our non-certified employees: our custodians, our secretaries, our transportation people, everyone except teachers and administrators,” Sincaglia said. “That bill, which for the current year was roughly $565,000… we had anticipated about an 8 percent increase there. Low and behold… our number was not only not increased from what we were paying, it was a decrease down to $523,000. So essentially, we had over $86,000 in money that we were going to pay for a mandated obligation that we no longer needed for that purpose.”

After the decreased was verified, Sincaglia said he spoke with Superintendent of Schools Judith Rattner and the Finance Committee to determine with to do with the extra money. After consideration, the board decided to split up the money, allocating $32,000 to expand the technology program and purchase 96 iPads and allocating $10,000 to bring back summer custodial employment for high school and college students. The remaining money – about $44,000 – will be given back to the taxpayers.

Before this amendment, the original budget was $45,803,209 and the tax levy was $37,220,249. But with this amendment to the adopted budget, Business Administrator/Board Secretary Donna Felezzola recalculated budget figures. Now, the total budget is $45,761,617 and the tax levy is $37,178,657.

The proposed budget will include $1,123,170 in state aid, up from the $426,204 received last year, and $4,308,935 in tuition from students who live in Mountainside, Felezzola explained. In addition, the budget includes $1,655,196 in the fund balance, which is a surplus from the 2011/2012 school budget. Felezzola explained that the law allows the district to carry over 2 percent of the previous year's budget into the next year's budget.

Highlights of the budget include a new elementary reading program, curriculum alignment and preparation for upcoming new state and national Common Core Standards, increased teacher development, a new teacher evaluation program, reinstatement of Middle School sports and new in-district special education programs, Rattner explained.

Further, the district will be reorganizing the administrative and supervisory structure, and will provide 172 replacement desktop and laptop computers, six new interactive projectors, and 32 new iPads. The district is also increasing its bandwidth in order to improve video, Internet and presentation capabilities in each classroom.

Personnel additions include more Resource Room Teachers, an additional First Grade Teacher based on projected higher enrollment, a Learning Disabled Teaching Consultant/Anti-bullying Specialist, and a Special Education Supervisor. 

Planned Capital Projects include:

• Upgrade a Science Lab and a Family and Consumer Science Lab at
• Replace ceilings, floors and countertops in all schools
• Replace lockers in locker rooms
• Various Paving Projects
• Purchase of maintenance equipment, a new school bus and computer servers that will allow the district to remain operational in the event of freak events like October's sudden snowstorm.