The Manchester Township Board of Education, at their March 26 special meeting, adopted a proposed general funds budget for the 2008-2009 school year of $43,967,584. The total budget, including debt service, would be $47,117,250. The local general fund tax levy would be $34,439,117 and the debt service tax levy would be $2,137,674. The anticipated 2008 tax rate is $1.659 per $100,000 of assessed valuation, an increase of 3.6 cents from 2007. [see Advertised Budget]
Business Administrator Peter Corigliano presented the budget in the absence of Superintendent of Schools Dr. William E. DeFeo, who was out of town. Corigliano said that Manchester’s tax rate would remain among the lowest in county and praised the Board of Education for maintaining a stable tax rate while remaining committed to providing a quality education for students. “Over the past 11 years, our school tax rate has increased by just 20 cents, or an average of 1.8 cents per year,” he said. “And this year our state test scores were exceptional, we passed every indicator in all of our schools.”
Corigliano said that the total budget (including debt service) is up by 3.9% and the general fund budget is up by 5%, which includes funding to add all-day kindergarten next year. “We applied for and received a waiver from the state to go above the budget cap in order to add all-day kindergarten at a cost of $358,613. Our argument was that since the state will require our district to offer all-day pre-school five years from now, we can’t expect students to go from all-day pre-school to half-day kindergarten.”
Board of Education Finance Chair, Donald Webster, Jr., said that the Board felt that they could add the all-day kindergarten at a reasonable cost right now because there is enough space to do it with the existing facilities. “Our students begin state testing in grade three; they need to be better prepared from the start,” he said. “We believe that $358,000 will be a very worthwhile investment and that we will save in the end as our students need fewer costly interventions later. We hope the public will support it.”
Corigliano said that some of the major items affecting the budget this year were a $207,000 increase in utilities for electric and gas costs, additional contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System that were previously paid for by the state, and transportation cost increases. He noted that there is a significant decrease in administrative costs. “We are $90 lower in per pupil costs for administration in this budget.”
The public will be asked to approve the budget in the school election on Tuesday, April 15. Polls will be open from 2:30-9:00 p.m. Three seats are up for the Board of Education. Candidates are incumbents Steve Placido, Gary Rhodes and Mary Walter, who are running unopposed.
