Will District's Good News Get Lost With No Election in April?

One implicit fact about school districts voting to move school elections to November: they're confident budgets will be under the 2 percent tax levy cap.

Watchung Hills Regional Board of Education members all but said as much at their Feb. 6 meeting, as they detailed the timeline for budget hearings, as well as some good financial news going into the planning for the 2012-2013 school year.

The board will provide a summary of the budget under consideration at its Feb. 21 meeting, and plans to approve a tentative budget following a March 5 public hearing.

At that point, the budget will be submitted to the county schools superintendent and skip the usual series of hearings leading up to an April vote.

Any budget not meeting the 2 percent cap would face a referendum in November, but the board's Finance Committee Chairman Harold Grossnickle said that won't be an issue this year.

"The budget we looked at tonight does meet the 2 percent cap," he said.

The budget under review includes funding for two major capital projects—the rebuilding of the track and some roof repairs, according to committee member Jerry Binder.

And Business Administrator Timothy Stys noted the refinancing of two bond issues yielded about $80,000 for the district's annual budgets.

Despite such good budget news, residents may miss out on the information without the usual drawn out approval process and its accompanying news coverage.

And there is one potential fly in the ointment: the budget assumes $770,000 in state aid, but the district won't know the actual figure until after Gov. Chris Christie's budget address later this month.