With the public hearing on the 2012-’13 school budget scheduled for Tuesday, March 27, the administration will be making the rounds to showcase the financial realities of running the school district (and the minimal impact the proposed budget will have on taxes — see page 11).
Superintendent Victoria Kniewel is continuing with a series of PTA-PTSA sponsored talks as follows: Wednesday, March 21 at 8 p.m. at High School South, and Thursday, March 22 at 9:30 a.m. at Maurice Hawk Elementary School. Kniewel will resume her visits in the days immediately after the March 27 meeting with events on Wednesday, March 28, at 9:30 a.m. at Village School and Thursday, March 29, at 9:30 a.m. at Millstone River.
At each event Kniewel plans on going through the presentation that Board Secretary Larry Shanok made on March 13, when he explained capital projects that the district has budgeted for this year as well as the local tax levy and tax rates in both townships.
The PTA-PTSAs of all 10 schools will also host a special lecture and discussion titled “Student Achievement and Student Success: The Cost of a WW-P Education” on two occasions — Wednesday, March 21, at Grover Middle School at 9:45 in the morning as well as Thursday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. at Community Middle School. Joining Kniewel for those two events are Larry Shanok, assistant superintendent for finance, and Martin Smith, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
Each meeting is free and open to the public, not restricted to members of the various PTSAs.
In budget presentations leading up to the annual public hearing on March 27, Shanok delivered some optimistic news. Although both expenditures and revenues, budget-to-budget, are set to increase by 1.89 percent, he said this year West Windsor-Plainsboro was able to keep the total tax levy from increasing. The proposed budget calls for a decrease of $1.5 million in the local tax levy.
For the current school year, 2011-’12, to total tax levy is $146,613,048 out of a budget of $158 million. Of the proposed $161,033.044 budget for 2012-’13, $145,116,301 would come from local tax levy, 1.02 percent or $1.5 million less than last year.
“The fund balance and state aid in this case have enough increased dollars that the total local tax levy can decline by a million and a half, or one percent. That’s unique in my time here, and given that before my time here most of the budgets were increasing 5 to 12 percent a year I certainly doubt it happened previously,” Shanok says.
Shanok explained that a proposed fund balance of $5,677,110 — $2.5 million more surplus for fund balance than last year — is due to “three very good things” that happened for WW-P last year. First he credited the district’s frugal approach to spending in 2011. Second he said there were significant one-time federal dollars available to the district. Third, the proposed charter school didn’t open, which “allowed us the opportunity to leave money unspent,” he said.
State aid will be much higher in 2012 with $7,771,956 expected, or almost 42 percent and $2.3 million more than last year. While Shanok said this is a positive he pointed out that it is still less than the $8 million cut in state aid from 2009-’10 to 2010-’11, when the district’s state aid amount fell from $11.7 million to $3.58 million.
One of Shanok’s slides showed the tax levy along with budget totals for the past six years. He noted that in 2012, for the fourth year in a row the budget increase falls under the 2 percent state-mandated cap – squeaking in at 1.9 percent higher this year. The last time it went over, the increase was 4.3 percent in both 2007-’08 and 2008-’09.
Turning to plans for next school year, Shanok said West Windsor-Plainsboro will focus on a few capital projects which couldn’t be handled last year. In total this year’s projects will cost $2.8 million, supported by an annual budget amount of $1.5 million plus capital reserve and ROD (regular operating district) grants. At High School North the stair tower door hardware replacement is one ROD grant project. At High School South several projects are budgeted: tennis courts, bleachers, project adventure and an MDF room upgrade. MDF stands for main distribution facility and it’s where computer servers, hubs, and routers are set up. Shanok says designated MDF rooms are critical for technology to enhance learning in the district.
“With the growth in technology. computer power, and all those kinds of things we’ve kept track with a lot of that. But current demands of such equipment generally exceeds the capability of those rooms from when they were first designed,” Shanok said.
At Community Middle School HVAC upgrades are budgeted. Last summer the district replaced the first HVAC unit and will continue the work this year. Sidewalks will also be improved at Community. At Grover Middle School carpet replacement is planned after Community saw that upgrade happen last year.
In 2011 boiler replacements were targeted for Wycoff and Maurice Hawk schools. This year Dutch Neck will get the same treatment. Shanok said the Dutch Neck boiler replacement is “more involved” but it also falls under ROD grant projects.
Shanok explained the district’s combination of newer and old school buildings and facilities, linking them to the way capital projects are spread out over time.
“A year ago we outlined a $7.8 million program for projects even though the annual budget then included only $1.1 million. Supporting that was $4.1 million from capital reserve and up to $2.5 million in regular operating district grants from the state that we qualified for,” he said.
