Tentative School Budget Has $439,000 for More Staff, $180,000 in Tax Relief

The adopted a tentative 2011-12 school budget with a $73,158,200 tax levy at its special meeting Thursday night, representing a 1.75 percent increase from last year to fall under the state's 2 percent cap for tax growth.

In the next three weeks, the board will work with the tentative budget in preparation for March 28, when it presents a proposed school budget at a public hearing. In April, the budget's tax levy amount goes on the ballot for Fair Lawn voters.

Fair Lawn's school district learned of its Feb. 23, after previously anticipating a $100,000 aid decrease for the coming year and therefore including that amount as a state shortage in the budget's . Factoring in the district's $55,821 in debt service assessment, and Fair Lawn's "actual state aid increase" is $841,800, Superintendent Bruce Watson said.

Using those funds, the tentative school budget includes $439,000 for personnel additions, $180,000 in tax relief, and $222,800 for the district's capital reserve. Among the personnel additions include upgrading to a full-time middle school technical librarian, two elementary school social workers and upgrading to a full-time school psychologist at .

"We've been trying to keep all the money going into the education side, to the students," Watson said.

Six or seven years ago, the school district was able to budget as much as $800,000 to $1 million per year for the capital reserve—used for building improvements, Watson explained. Board member John Mancinelli said that while the increase in state aid allows the district to restore some of last year's cuts, Fair Lawn still cannot afford any program growth.

"This is not a growth budget," Mancinelli said. "It's still a maintenance budget."

Board member Mike Rosenberg emphasized that at this time last year, the school district—after already balancing its budget—learned that it would see a $4.1 million decrease in state aid, representing 5 percent of its total budget. This year, Gov. Chris Christie "gave us 1 percent back from the 5 percent he took last year," Rosenberg said.

"I know we're in hard times, but the state of New Jersey, to me, doesn't seem like it cares about the education of our children one iota," Rosenberg said.

The following tables contain the keys figures from the tentative 2011-12 school budget:

OVERVIEW

YEAR-TO-YEAR TAX COMPARISON

STATE AID

USAGE OF ADDITIONAL STATE AID

PERSONNEL ADDITIONS