Spotswood school tab brings no tax increase
BY VINCENT TODARO Staff Writer

SPOTSWOOD - In nearly every New Jersey community in recent years, the annual school budgets have become synonymous with tax increases.

Not this year in Spotswood.

Board of Education President Alan Bartlett said that due to the vastly increased general state aid the school district expects to receive, the 2008-09 budget comes with a flat tax rate. School officials were worried that the state would dramatically roll back the amount of aid offered specifically for debt service, offsetting the increase in general state aid, but they learned last week that this would not be the case.

"Thankfully our cut was small," Bartlett said. The budget proposed by the board stands at about $25.5 million, with the tax levy funding about $11.2 million of that. The school tax rate would remain at $1.49 per $100 of assessed valuation.With the average assessment for a borough home at about $253,000, the owner of that home pays about $3,770 in school taxes annually.

Bartlett said the fact that general state aid to the school district is increasing by $800,000, or 20 percent, meant that the state's recent cutback of about $5,500 in debt service aid mattered little.

The district is still underfunded by about $400,000, according to state criteria, but Bartlett said he hopes that the state will address that next year.

"We're absolutely thrilled," Bartlett said of this year's aid increase. "It will allow us to take care of needs as best we can, and provide a flat tax increase."

With the additional funding, the school district is expected to add a new elementary school world language teacher and one new special education teacher, as well as budgeting $160,000 for new bathrooms in the old wing atMemorial School, allwithout raising taxes, Bartlett said.

It is unlikely that the Spanish teacher would have been hired, or that the bathrooms would be done without the additional aid, he said. However, the special education teacher would have been hired regardless, due to an increased enrollment in that category.

The Board of Education plans to hold a public hearing on the budget and vote on its adoption on March 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the media center of Spotswood High School, Summerhill Road. Residentswill vote on the budget in the April 15 school election.

Bartlett said hiring a new foreign language teacher means that a student going through kindergarten through fifth grade will receive 120 hours of language education. That's a significant increase fromthe current program, which offers only about 35 hours.

The aid increase will also allow the district to pay for the fixed, rising costs of its contractual obligationswithout having to increase taxes.

"Our [staff] salaries are going up, as they do each year," Bartlett said.

The school district tries to make infrastructure upgrades each year so that they do not continue to pile up and cause economic disruption down the line, he noted.

"It's better to pay as you go," he said, adding that safety issues could arise as well if projects are put off.

The basketball bleachers at the high school need work, Bartlett said, but officials decided instead to fund the new playground at the Appleby School this year. The bleachers have been welded, and officials hope this will resolve the problem for a year or two.