Committee votes for $355K school budget cut
BY DAN NEWMAN
Staff Writer

Hazlet

HAZLET - The Township Committee voted last week to recommend $355,000 in cuts to the 2007-08 school budget, which was defeated in last month's school board election.

The proposed budget went down by a vote of 992-779 on April 17. At stake was a $30,987,424 local tax levy, which was to help support an overall budget of $44,311,706. The budget included funds for a new multimedia center and computer labs for all schools within the district, a new air-conditioning unit in the main office of Hazlet Middle School and new biology labs at Raritan High School.

As a result of the Township Committee's cuts, the rise to the tax rate will be 1.6 cents less, or a total of 9.1 cents per $100 assessed value more than last year. Under the budget, the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would pay about $182 more in taxes this year.

The school board was scheduled to vote Monday on whether or not to officially accept the Township Committee's cuts.

"At this point, it's really just a formality that the board will accept the $355,000 reduction in funds for the budget," board President Glenn Mason said. "We'll just have to take it on the chin and accept what's happened and move forward."

Among the items likely to be cut out of the budget are one lunch aide at each of the district's six elementary schools, producing a savings of $20,000; and a lack of field trips for students in grades one, three, five and seven, for a savings of $21,000, according to Board of Education Business Administrator/ Secretary Christopher Mullins. The cost of heat and electricity came in below budget, which will mean a savings of $12,000. Mullins also said that $11,000 will be saved on transportation costs.

The bulk of the remaining savings will be due to some staff members either leaving or retiring at the end of next month. Those individuals will be replaced at a lower salary range, something that is commonly referred to as "breakage." For Hazlet, it'll mean a savings of $160,000. Another $50,000 can be tacked on to that number because Mullins said that the new employees will be receiving a less expensive health plan.

"With a high school teacher, two elementary school teachers, a secretary and a nurse leaving our district, we will certainly have to replace them, but they will be entering our district at a lower pay scale," Mullins explained.

He also said that the line items being removed from the budget were "satisfactory for this year, but we don't know what this will mean for the future.

"We have a very well-run district here in Hazlet and we hope to keep it that way," Mullins said. "But things are always changing and so we've got to always try and get our budget passed because things are only going to get tougher from here."

Committeeman Michael Sachs said last week that all parties felt it was important not to cut any programs that would impact the education of the children.

"Each year it gets tougher when a budget fails, and this year was no different," Sachs said. "The last thing you want to do is cut any programs, but thankfully there were a few retirements, which made things not so bad for us. Still though, it's not something that we want go through. We pretty much went with the recommendations that the Board of Education made."