Brick School Board Introduces Proposed Budget

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Board of Education approved a tentative budget for the 2018-19 school year of $155 million.

The board acknowledged the introduction was just a starting point. "We have a lot of work to do," one board member said after the meeting.

The proposed budget must be approved by Judith DeStefano-Anen, the interim executive Ocean County superintendent of schools, before it is finalized; it includes $2 million in debt service and a tax levy of $109 million.

Preliminary state aid figures announced as part of Gov. Phil Murphy's proposed state budget would give Brick $36,055,619, an increase of $750,798 over 2017-18. But Donald Webster Jr., the president of the Manchester Township Board of Education and a member of the New Jersey Schools Boards Association executive board, said at a recent Manchester school board meeting that state officials have indicated the final school aid figures may be less.

Photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff