Allentown faces 13¢ tax hike for school budget
Upper Freehold's share may be only .06 cents
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writer
The Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education took its first look at the 2008- 09 budget last week and it seems especially taxing for Allentown residents.

If passed as initially presented to the board at its Feb. 6 meeting, the $31.5 million budget would raise the Allentown tax rate by 13 cents and the Upper Freehold tax rate by .06 cents per $100,000 of assessed value.

AnAllentown resident with a home assessed at the borough's average of $153,300 would pay a tax increase of $200 per year if the budget passes. The average Upper Freehold homeowner with a home assessed at the township's average of $526,400 can expect a $31.58 increase.

The extreme difference between the tax levies for both towns in the regional district comes as a result of Allentown's student population increasing by 13 in the past year while its ratables dropped by $500,000, according to Viola Yosifon, the school district's business administrator.

"This puts the ratio up," Yosifon said. "Even though there is no building in the community, there are younger families moving in."

Meanwhile, Upper Freehold's student population leveled off in the past year while the town had a $29 million increase in ratables, Yosifon said.

The proposed budget relies on a total tax levy of $16.9 million, a budgeted fund balance of $350,000, miscellaneous funding in the amount of $97,500, tuition in the amount of about $8.8 million, and state aid in the amount of $5.3 million.

According to the new school funding formula implemented by Gov. Jon Corzine this year, the Upper Freehold Regional School District will receive 20 percent more state aid this year than it did last year.

Yosifon said the additional $800,000 would help pay for the waiver the district took last year for the purchase of trailers, $200,000 worth of pensions, and regular salary and benefit increases.

"The $800,000 is right there and it's gone," she said. "The good news is that last year we took a waiver and this year there is no waiver. We are doing this out of our regular budget, and the $800,000 will be in our bank if we get the same aid figures next year and if we don't add any more [trailers]."

The proposed budget allocates $10.4 million toward regular instruction and $2.8 million toward special education. Tuition costs total $776,433, basic skills instruction costs total $266,558, extra curricular instruction costs total $219,723, bilingual instruction costs total $83,949, athletics costs total $593,612 and transportation costs total $1.8 million.

Superintendent of Schools Richard Fitzpatrick said the school district developed the 2008-09 budget to serve the best interests of all students by strategically using state aid, providing more space for learning, and maintaining a high-quality school education for every student in grades pre-kindergarten through 12. He said the budget promotes high academic achievement, artistic achievement, athletic achievement and the development of character.

"The budget simply is a plan in order for us to reach our goals, hopes and dreams for our kids," Fitzpatrick said. "We want to serve the best interests of all of our students. We want to make certain that every child has the opportunity to achieve their greatest destiny."

In order to formulate the budget, the school district studied student enrollment, examined its programs and services, reviewed areas of potential cost savings and created the budget in accordance with Department of Education guidelines, he said.

Fitzpatrick said the base budget achieves compliance with A-1 and the mandated 4 percent tax cap. He said the base budget includes all of the programs and services offered in the 2007-08 budget and honors a $200,000 increase in the district's Public Employees Retirement System responsibility. He said the base budget also includes math, English and science supervisors, maintains existing class sizes, and maintains all sports and extracurricular activities.

The base budget also maintains limited supplemental funds in the amount of $16,000 for curriculum and instruction text replacement, maintains funding for technology lease renewal, and provides $27,000 for the lease purchase of a school bus and van, which the district must replace by law because they are more than 12 years old.

While working with the schools' administrators, the school district came up with level-one and level-two priorities for the new budget, according to Fitzpatrick.

The level-one priorities are what administrators need to improve the programs in the schools and to advance the district's goals. Priority-one requests at this point total $795,925. However, the school district will not be able to fund all of these requests if nothing else in the budget changes before its adoption, Fitzpatrick said.

These requests include approximately $160,000 over what the base budget would pay for the creation of a comprehensive preschool program. The additional $160,000 would include the costs of hiring two teachers and renting space from Millstone for the program.

"The program would move out, which would create space," Fitzpatrick said. "There is space we could lease in Millstone. It is an ideal and uplifting environment with an enclosed play area. To me, it seems like a dream. It's almost too good to be true."

The school district is currently estimating the cost of leasing the space at $36,000. However, Fitzpatrick said he still must hammer out the details of an agreement with the Millstone Township School District.

He said moving the preschool program outside of the district would create enough space for the additional secondgrade classroom that the school district needs while it constructs its new middle school. He said an extra trailer for that classroom would cost the district $80,000.

"Not only would we save money, but we would be able to enhance our preschool program to better serve our kids." Fitzpatrick said.

The school district also considers hiring additional second-grade, eighthgrade and special education teachers as level-one priorities. The school district has estimated the cost of hiring the additional teachers at $63,000 each, which includes a $52,000 salary and a $10,500 benefits package.

Fitzpatrick said the high school asked for 11 additional teachers, but is only being considered for the priorityone hires of two teachers and one science supervisor.

The school district also considers allocating $74,000 for curriculum and instruction replacement texts and mapping software as a level-one priority, as well as spending $250,000 on three trailers to meet the district's space needs in 2008-09.

Although the district's priority-one needs total $795,925, it only has $534,000 available over the base budget based on the 4 percent cap. The district may have to eliminate $261,925 of the priority-one needs if nothing else in the budget changes prior to its adoption. The board asked Fitzpatrick to make recommendations for cuts if it cannot fund all of the priority-one needs.

Despite not having enough funds to fulfill its priority-one needs, the district also outlined priority-two needs, which are improvement requests that are strongly recommended to enhance the current programs.

The priority-two needs total $821,705. These needs include $45,284 for elementary school staffing and materials, $143,804 for middle school staffing and materials, $345,201 for high school staffing and support, and $26,500 for special education staff and services. The district would also like to have an additional $11,100 for assistive technology, $16,450 for security technology, $31,860 for an additional technology lease, $70,467 for buildings and grounds staff and supplies including floor upgrades, and $17,789 for athletic requests including a middle school track program.

Fitzpatrick said the priority-two items have been outlined but are currently not under consideration for introduction into the budget.

"There were $1.5 million worth of things that the administrators asked for, but we only have $500,000 we can spend," Fitzpatrick said.

Board member Patty Hogan asked, "Even if we wanted to ask for these items, are we at the maximum amount that we can request?"

Fitzpatrick said the board could apply for a waiver, but the waiver would affect the local tax levy. Looking at the proposed tax impact in Allentown without a waiver, the board decided against taking a waiver this year.

Fitzpatrick put together a comparative spending guide, which showed the school district spends $6,183 per student on classroom instruction whereas the average school in its District Factor Group (DFG) spends $6,847. The school district spends an average of $1,267 per student on administrative costs, whereas the DFG median is $1,306. The school district spends $1,265 per student on utility costs whereas the DFG median is $1,359. The school district spends an average of $363 per student on extracurricular costs, whereas the DFG median is $281.

The school district must submit the budget to the Monmouth County Superintendent of Schools by Feb. 15. The superintendent may suggest changes or cuts, Fitzpatrick said.

The board was scheduled to hold another budget workshop meeting on Feb. 13. The board's next regular meeting will take place Feb. 20.

The board is expected to introduce the budget at its Feb. 27 meeting, to hold a March 5 workshop meeting, and to hold its public hearing and final adoption of the budget on March 19.