Warren Board OKs $40.3M Preliminary Budget, 1.6% Hike

The preliminary budget for Warren Township schools approved Monday would  increase spending on special ed and regular classroom instruction, and add about $98 to the district's portion of the local property taxes.

While the tax rate would increase by 1.6 percent if additional changes are not made to the budget and it is approved by voters on April 27, overall spending increases by 3.44 percent to $40,319,301, up from $38,977,571 for the 2010-2011 school year.

According to calculations by Business Administrator Peter Daquila, the average property owner would see an increase of $98, based on an average assessment of $605,753. That compares to a final increase in last year's budget of $128 for the average property tax bill.

Superintendent of Schools Tami Crader said the additional $377,321 the district will receive in state aid enabled officials to consider some options in order to meet the state-set limit of a 2 percent increase in taxes.

"We stayed up at night thinking about what to do with all that money," Dr. Crader joked. "Some problem to have.

"But it is a tough problem to have because we have this increased amount of money and we want to go out to the public with a responsible budget," she continued. "The public knows we had $87,000 to cut, so with this extra money, we have the choice of staying up to cap and maintaining next year's base—or lowering that amount by a certain number and going out with less than 2 percent."

She said board members chose to go less than 2 percent, spreading the funding over several areas and keeping the increase at 1.6 percent.

The additional funds enabled the district to budget to replace two buses, add a late bus for the middle school, increase maintenance spending by $17,000, and increase staff development expenditures by $10,000.

The budget also benefitted by $372,918 with several changes to the district's employee benefits plans, notably the 1.5 percent of employee salaries now being collected for benefits, as well as a change in policies requiring employees to receive vouchers for not taking the health plans (employees opting out of coverage because of coverage by a spouse's employer plan used to receive such voucher payments regardless of where the spouse worked, but new state rules bar the vouchers if the spouse also works for a school district or other governmental body with state plan coverage).

The proposed budget also draws $720,000 from capital reserves for the additional maintenance  work, which includes facade work at schools, new bleachers in the middle school's older gym, rennovation of the all-purpose room at Central School,   expanding the Woodland School playground,  and upgrading the heat control systems at Mt. Horeb School.

The board members unanimously approved the preliminary budget (board President Gregory Przybylski was absent from the meeting), but board member Sue Burman said she had some misgivings about reducing the budget from the 2 percent maximum.

"I'm concerned because I don't think the 'other shoe' has dropped from Trenton," she said, adding she doesn't have any specific knowledge of additional state changes, only a concern more could happen, leaving the district in a difficult budget situation.

The board will discuss the budget again at its March 14 meeting, and at a March 28 public hearing. Voters will decide its fate April 27.