Added State Aid 'Unexpected'

The Finance Committee of the Warren Township Board of Education meeting scheduled for Wednesday night has a new priority action item on its agenda: How to use an additional $387,320 in state aid announced yesterday. 

Watchung Hills Regional and its three sending districts will be receiving virtually double the aid increase they were scheduled to receive over the 2011 fiscal year, something that was standard in the state for non-Abbott districts, Gov. Chris Christie announced Tuesday.

According to a press release issued by the Christie's administration, an additional $150 million is being provided to non-Abbott school districts in the state. The funding is part of the $850 million in state aid funded in the 2012 fiscal budget approved last week, and is being distributed using a new formula.

Watchung Hills Regional High School, which was scheduled to receive $345,607 will now receive double that at $691,214. Long Hill is receiving an additional $141,435, doubling its increase from fiscal year 2011 and making its total funding for FY 2012 $526,958. Watchung Borough will get $112,094 additional funding, bringing its total to $330,218 and doubling the increase from FY 2011. Warren Township schools will receive $387,320 additional funding, making it $774,642 more than it received in FY 2011 and bringing the total funding to $914,039 for FY 2012.

Christie is encouraging districts to use the additional aid for property tax relief, but officials are waiting for clarification of any other restrictions or requirements for the aid.

"I am being cautiously optimistic," Warren schools Superintendent Tami Crader said. "I believe there will probably be conditions and restrictions on the money."

If applied entirely to tax relief, the aid could reduce the tax rate by about 1 cent—saving the owner of a property assessed at $600,000 about $60. A similar savings could be realized from the additional aid granted Watchung Hills Regional, however because of the complexity of the school's regionalized budget, is more difficult to estimate.

"Always in the back of our minds is taxpayer relief," Crader said.

The aid is made up of three different parts: an initial $250 million that was initially authorized in increased school aid, an additional $150 million for non-Abbott districts, and $450 million to Abbott districts, which is slightly more than half of the total aid.

That $450 million is being distributed amongst 31 districts. That additional funding, according to a release by the Christie administration, fully funds the Abbott districts under the School Funding Reform Act formula.

“This year, New Jersey increased state aid to school districts by $850 million over last year, restoring every dollar of the cuts we were forced to make last year and increasing aid by an additional $30 million,” Christie said in the release.

The aid comes more than a year after the administration made aid cuts to all districts, which were announced on St. Patrick’s Day 2010. In many cases, the additional aid announced on Tuesday doubled the amount that was initially designated for non-Abbott districts.

Crader noted Tuesday's announcement was a surprise to the board members and area district superintendents she spoke to about it.

"None of us expected this and it's very welcome," she said.