District officials aim to build support for budget Lowest increase in decade proposed after two years of defeat BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer HAZLET - The district's proposed school budget increase is the lowest in nine years and school officials are telling anybody who will listen. "We came here tonight to speak to the people that we do not speak to at every Board of Education meeting," Hazlet School District SuperintendentWilliam O. George said at the March 4 Township Committee meeting. "We are very proud of this budget and are trying to reach as many people as we can to spread the word." George and school district Business Administrator Christopher Mullins came to the meeting with a printout of the budget presentation they had made an hour prior in front of a group of school parents at a separate meeting. "We are trying to create a transparent process," George said. "We have the general public here in front of us and want to let everyone know how we go about our process to come up with the budget that will be voted on April 15." This year's proposed school budget is $47.7million. Voters have failed to approve the two previous school budgets. George described the budget process as arduous and said it began in early November when the school administration came together to discuss what would go into the budget. The Board of Education received the budget in January and approved it in February and sent it to the county superintendent of schools, who approved the spending plan. "Our budget has gone through many levels of scrutiny," George said. "We can very proudly say that we are only asking for the lowest increase in the last nine years." This year's budget increase over last year would be 1.84 percent, or 5.3 cents per $100 of assessed property value, which would amount to an increase of $71 per year or $6 per month for the average taxpayer. "The inflation of the cost of living over the year is 2.89 percent and we are asking for less than that," George said. "We looked in our process fromline itemto line itemto give the lowest increase we could." The increase is less than half of what the district proposed the previous year (10.8 cents) and a third of what was proposed in 2006-07 at 17.9 cents. Health care, salaries and benefits are the largest contributors to the $47.7 million budget. George said that part of the budget will go toward bringing more students into the district. The budget includes $250,000 for a portion of a lease purchase of the West Keansburg school building fromBrookdale Community College. "We want to educate the students ofHazlet in Hazlet," George said. "By purchasing the lease for the West Keansburg building, we would be able to expand our kindergarten program as well as our special needs programs." By increasing the kindergarten and special-needs programs, the Hazlet school district will be eligible for an increase in state aid that would help keep future budgets low, according to George. "We are not receiving the full state funding that we could be receiving fromthe state funding formula because we do not offer full-day kindergarten," George said. "By going forward in this purchase, we would have the facilities to do so." Mullins said it was important that the budget also includemaintaining all staff in the schools as well as adding new positions including after-school tutoring and training for teachers in the elementary schools. In the high school, the budget includes the cost for two new wireless computer labs, a multimedia studio and introduction of a summer program at Monmouth University for all students. "We are below the state average in perpupil spending, administrative spending and extracurricular spending," Mullins said. "The only increase we have is when it comes to our buildings and grounds costs. This budget is one that we are trying to go to as many places as possible to spread the word." After their presentation, the school administrators handed out their contact information so residents with questions could call for more information. "We thought doing this was a good idea, because when else do we get to speak to this type of audience?" George said. "Hopefully, by looking at our budget and through our presentation, we can get this budget passed."