Let me see if this makes sense. The WWP school budget increases 1.34 percent and state aid to help defray that cost goes up by $200,000 but some how the tax levy necessary to pay the $164.6 million school budget is going up 2.35 percent. How can the tax levy increase more than the budget? This is especially curious since the state aid increased and now covers a whopping 4.85 percent of the budget. So someone please point out how the facts reported in this paper make any sense. Maybe then I can move on to understanding how our per pupil costs are only average when our pupil to teacher and pupil to administration rations are so much higher than average. The main expense line item is staff salary/benefits. One would think that high higher student to teacher/administrator ratios would lead to lower costs. But somehow that simple math doesn’t work out either. Might just be easier to move.
Sean Sheerin
West Windsor
Editor’s Note: The News asked School Board President Tony Fleres to explain the tax levy increase. He responded: “The school budget has three major revenue sources — Local Tax Levy, State Aid and Fund Balance. The Fund Balance is basically money that was budgeted in the prior year but not spent. This year’s contribution from Fund Balance is down by about $1.5 million compared to 2013-’14. (Last year it was unusually high.) The difference is made up in the tax levy. Therefore, the budget and tax levy percentages will almost always be different. For example, in 2012-’13 the budget rose 1.9 percent while the taxes declined 1 percent and in 2013-’14 the budget increased about 0.9 percent without any tax increase.”
