Separate $1 million question seeks voter approval for energy, security upgrades

By CHRISTIAN MANAHAN
Staff Writer

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP – The local school district presented its proposed 2008-2009 budget during a public hearing Tuesday, March 25.

A PowerPoint presentation supplemented the hearing and was made by Superintendent Frederick Donatucci and Business Administrator Martha Jamison.

The district’s proposed $44.63 million budget, which is up nearly $3.5 million from the previous spending plan, calls for a tax rate of $1.45 per $100 of assessed value, unchanged from the existing rate.

The district is also proposing a separate question for a $1 million bond to pay for security and energy upgrades in the district’s schools. School officials said it would have no tax impact in the proposed 2008-2009 budget and a rate increase of .3 cents the following year.

Based on a $104,000 average property assessment in the municipality, average taxpayers would expect to pay $1,508 toward the local k-8 education schools.

Donatucci compared the budget process in previous years to going to the dentist for a teeth pulling. This year, however, it’s different, given the lack of a tax rate increase.

The highlight of the presentation was the lack of an increase on the tax rate for elementary education under the preliminary budget.

No comment was made by the public regarding the budget.

“This year it is a lot different – a better picture,” he said.

Officials said that the lack of a school tax rate increase is in large part due to the amount of state aid received.

The district received a 20 percent increase over last year’s amount bringing it to nearly $22 million.

Additionally, the district also received some $380,000 in special revenue aid which is required to be spent on the pre-kindergarten program.  Jamison said in a previous interview that the amount of state aid is determined by how much a district spends per pupil.

The state requires that every school district spend $9,649 per elementary student and $10,082 per middle school student, officials said.

Although an exact amount was not given, Jamison said at the hearing that the school district is still below what the state requires the school district to spend per pupil. This has led the district to conclude that it can expect another 20 percent increase in state aid for next year’s budget.

“There is still a large gap there,” she said. “We will likely see it again next year.”

Residents will have an opportunity to vote on the budget and a second ballot question, during the school board elections Tuesday, April 15.

Further, the second ballot question will seek voter approval for a nearly $1 million bond to pay for maintenance and facility improvements to the three schools making up the district. 

The bond would allow the district to be more energy efficient by providing funds to install motion sensor lights for classrooms at the George L. Hess Educational Complex the Joseph C. Shaner Memorial Elementary School.  In addition, the Hess School would be able to install a temperature regulation system that would allow the district’s building and grounds director to monitor every classroom’s temperature through a computer system.

“Electricity has become a tremendously expensive,” Donatucci said.

The bond would allow the school district to finish a project started in the previous year in which the Davies School beefed up its security.  In 2007, as part of a nearly $1 million bond, the Middle School was able to install 25 security cameras.

If passed, the bond would be paid back in a 10-year span and will not have an impact on this year’s tax rate, but is projected to have a tax rate increase of .3 cents on the 2009-2010 budget.

The school district is also expecting 50 percent reimbursement for this bond from the state.

Meanwhile, the increase in the budget will allow the district to hire five full-time teachers, a part-time preschool teacher, convert five part-time basic skills instructors into full-time positions, hire a full-time maintenance person and convert two-part time custodians into full-time positions.

The budget would spend $3.25 million for transportation, up $26,000 from the previous year. The minimal increase is due to a decrease in out-of-district special education students enrolled at the district as well as a renewal of a one-year contract with First Student, which factored in a 2.9 percent cost of living increase.

However the capital outlay program is expected to jump to approximately $563,000, up slightly more than $500,000 from 2007-2008.

The increase in capital outlay will allow the district to partake in summer projects such as painting the inside and outside of the schools, paving the student pick-up area at Hess School, and installing a fence at the Shaner School.