Despite failing in West Windsor, the $153.5 million school budget was approved on April 15 by 141 votes, 1,”193 to 1,”052. The difference: Plainsboro, where the budget will result in a slight tax decrease and where the vote was 463 to 221.##M:[more]##
Voters in West Windsor, which will face higher taxes, failed the budget, with 730 approving it and 831 voting against it.
The quiet school election campaign season ended with West Windsor voters re-elect incumbents Richard Kaye and Randall Tucker, with 986 and 926 votes respectively, for second three-year terms over challenger Mindy Fox-Heifler, who received 534 votes. In Plainsboro, unopposed newcomer Alapakkam Manikandan received 457 votes to secure his spot on the board.
The $153.5 million budget overall is up by $6.3 million — a 4.3 percent increase — and includes a local tax levy increase of 3.5 percent, with West Windsor residents seeing a 3.2 percent increase in their tax bills, and Plainsboro residents seeing a 5.9 percent decrease.
The amount to be raised through taxation in West Windsor is $78.1 million, up from last year’s $75.7 million, and in Plainsboro, $49.9 million will be collected from residents, down from $53 million last year. The tax rate itself is up 5.2 cents — to $1.25 per $100 — in West Windsor and down 8.6 cents — to $1.35 per $100 — in Plainsboro. This spells an increase of $289 to a total $6,”962 school tax bill for West Windsor residents with homes assessed at the township average of $556,”973, and a decrease of $342 to $5,”369 for residents in Plainsboro with an average assessed home of $397,”720.
The school board attributed this year’s budget increase to growing enrollment, an increase in salary, wage, and pension costs, and a rise in fuel costs. As a result of growing enrollment, the board added three teachers at the high school level, a guidance counselor at High School North, a teacher at the middle school level, a custodian, and the technology staff member this year.
West Windsor residents will be covering 62 percent of the tax bill in 2008-’09, as equalized valuation numbers showed a 62/38 split between West Windsor and Plainsboro this year — the last year taxes are based on property values and not on the number of students in each township.
Fox-Heifler offered her congratulations to Kaye and Tucker upon first hearing the results. When asked if she would run again, Heifler said she would like to see someone with the same ideas as she has with more experience run for the position next year, but “if no one steps up to the plate, I may run again,” she said.
Heifler said that when she first started attending school board meetings, the apathy of the parents really surprised her. “From hearing so many people complain about the education their children are getting, and then to have so few people come out and vote, and even more surprising, to have even fewer people going to the meetings, I think that’s a problem,” Heifler said. “It’s a lot of money to be that apathetic to how it’s being spent.”
Heifler says she understands how hard it is to defeat incumbents in any election, and that she will continue attending board meetings. Her biggest disappointment about losing was that she was hoping to show the board and the administration how important special education is and “how much we want to see change.” She says she hopes people will realize how large the special education community is and that it deserves more attention than it currently gets.
