With more than a dozen parents in attendance, the school board passed the 2016-’17 budget, 7-1.
Board member Isaac Cheng was absent, and Scott Powell cast the lone dissenting vote. He thanked the administration’s efforts to control budget increases but said, “I look forward to working with the administration to find savings so that I can vote yes.”
The budget totals $171,693,018, a 2.17 percent, or $3,642,509, increase from last year. The local tax levy to fund the budget is $155,477,792, which represents a 2.33 percent, or $3,540,826, increase. Balancing out the rest of the budget is fund balance revenue of $5.2 million, $8 million in state aid, and $2.95 million in miscellaneous revenue, figures similar to last year’s.
For West Windsor residents, the school tax rate increases 3.5 cents to $1.493 per $100 of assessed property value, or a school tax of $7,802 for a household with a home assessed at the township average of $522,601. Last year the average homeowner paid $7,617.
Plainsboro residents underwent a reassessment that increased the average township home assessment by 17 percent to $451,588, and in turn the tax rate decreased 28.2 cents to $1.389 per $100 of assessed property. The Plainsboro household living in the post-reassessment average township house pays $6,273 in school taxes. Last year the average homeowner paid $6,467.
After the budget public hearing, in response to resident comments saying the district has an excessive number of administrative supervisors, board president Tony Fleres said, “I don’t think we can run a district of 1,400 employees without a payroll supervisor, or a transportation supervisor. People talk about 30 supervisors, but not all of them are academic supervisors.”
Superintendent David Aderhold said the district is budgeting for healthcare and staff wage increases before the costs have been finalized, as healthcare premiums for 2017 aren’t known until the fall. In addition, the district is currently negotiating with the teachers’ union.
Assistant superintendent Larry Shanok added that transportation costs went up 9.5 percent to nearly $11 million despite low gas prices because busing contracts have increased 6 percent this year and 4.7 percent the year prior. Special education costs have increased as well, and Shanok said tuition charged by out-of-district providers are not subject to the state’s 2 percent budget increase cap.
Fleres began the meeting with a moment of silence. Robbinsville superintendent Steve Mayer, a former administrator in the WW-P district, and retired administrator Gerard Schaller both died in April (see obituaries, page 10). Mayer and Schaller both had served as assistant superintendents of curriculum and instruction in the district. Mayer was also the founding principal of Grover Middle School, and Schaller was previously the vice principal at Maurice Hawk and Dutch Neck schools, and principal at Wicoff.
In response to an anti-PARCC mass mailer circulated to district households, and a couple of parent comments, Fleres said: “We’ve always had a curriculum imposed on us. Basically they set some sort of minimum standards. There is nothing that stops us from offering AP tests. This idea that the national standard of Common Core is going to drag us down is plain wrong.”
The board president, in response to resident comments, also pushed back on the notion that the school board is a rubber stamp that always sides with the administration.
“We do have committee meetings and discussions in-house,” Fleres said. “The agenda we vote on has fairly mundane items. Items that don’t pass muster don’t even come before the board.”
The board approved two capital projects: a $348,900 contract to Ricasoli & Santin Contracting Co. Inc for the conversion of a storage room to a robotics lab at North; and a $129,299 contract with Stoneridge Inc. for pool foundation improvements at South.
#b#Lead in the Water?#/b#
Five samples out of 130 taken from all 10 district schools tested above lead levels of 15 parts per billion, the EPA action limit.
In a district-wide letter, superintendent David Aderhold identified a classroom faucet at Village School, a faculty lounge bubbler at Dutch Neck, a bubbler at Maurice Hawk, a classroom faucet at Grover, and a water cooler at South as the locations with lead concentrations above 15 ppb. The five identified areas were turned off and retested, and in a follow-up letter dated April 27, Aderhold wrote that four of the retested areas showed lead concentrations below 15 ppb. The bubbler at Maurice Hawk again tested above 15 ppb and has been taken offline.
The district has released the water testing reports for the five schools that did not have a sample exceeding 15 ppb: North, Community, Millstone River, Town Center, and Wicoff. At least 10 samples from sinks and water fountains were tested at each school. Two samples from Community tested at or above 10 ppb, and one sample at Wicoff tested at 14 ppb.
The district has posted the test results of the five low lead-level schools on the website, and reports from the four schools that initially had a high lead level sample are being finalized. The district is working with an environmental consultant on a course of action for the Maurice Hawk sample that twice tested above 15 ppb.
The original testing was conducted by PARS Environmental during spring break. The district shares the same water supplier, NJ American Water, as the rest of the township, which has no evidence of lead in the water. PARS attributes the higher lead level results to a possible lack of flushing.
At the April 26 board meeting board president Tony Fleres said the district is awaiting final tests, and said the first results raise an issue that “some of these faucets are rarely used. It’s a question of maintenance practice.”
