Helmetta cuts $70K from school budget Tax increase reduced from $180 to $104 on average BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer HELMETTA- Borough and school officials agreed on $70,000 worth of cuts to the rejected school budget this week. MayorNancyMartin said the governing bodymet with school representativesMonday to discuss the tax levy, which voters overwhelmingly rejected last month. The budget was defeated 103-29 in theApril 18 school election. Voters have rejected Helmetta's school budget in each of the past five years, despite the fact that a reduction in taxes was proposed for one of those years. The Board of Education's 2008-09 budget would have raised school taxes by an average of $180 on a home assessed at the borough average of $273,182. That tax increase will instead be $104 as the result of this week's cuts. The proposed tax rate hike was reduced from 6.6 cents to 3.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. School Business Administrator Brian Savage said the board agreed with the Borough Council's recommended cuts in light of the current financial situation. "I think the resolution is acceptable by all," Savage said. However, he said the move will make things "more difficult" for the board. "We are concerned about the future, the low free balance [surplus] and increasing enrollment," he said. As part of the budget cut, the board will appropriate $50,000 from the district's reserve account, lowering the amount of available surplus funds to $185,000. That amount is anticipated to decrease by another $40,000 to $50,000 with the addition of another student being sent out of district, Savage said. He said he is concerned because the board cannot budget to increase the surplus, and no money is left over to replenish the account. This puts the district in a difficult situation if other unforeseen expenditures arise, he said. "We are spending pretty much every penny of our budget every year," Savage said. The district had a higher-than-usual enrollment increase, with 19 students expected in the fall. Helmetta does not have its own schools and pays to send its students to the Spotswood school district.Helmetta expects to send about 295 students to Spotswood in the fall and will pay higher tuition rates for those students, based on a state formula. Martin said cuts were made to summer school transportation, since it was not mandatory. This amounted to $20,000 in savings. "We did not cut the actual program, because children may be in need of this additional assistance during the summer, but the transportation would be the responsibility of the parent," Martin said. The district experienced an increase in students going out of district that had a significant impact on the tax levy,Martin said. Just one out-of-district placement for a special needs student could cost the district in excess of $100,000, including transportation costs. Regarding the issue of whether all of the students Helmetta pays for actually reside in town, Savage said the district is going to hold a mandatory registration of all children in Helmetta that will be completed by August. Residents will be notified about it by mail in June or July. Martin said officials were not able to cut from the anticipated number of students, since the Milltown and Spotswood district budgets were approved based on 19 additional students from Helmetta attending schools in those boroughs.