Zero percent increase

BY PATRICIA KELLER
WEST MILFORD — West Milford Township Public Schools Board of Education adopted its 2016-2017 budget Tuesday night, giving taxpayers a break with a zero percent increase for the upcoming school year.
Business Administrator Barbara Francisco presented the final budget at the Board of Education’s Public Budget Hearing.
The budget maintains current programming and staffing initiatives, adds new academic programs for students, includes augmentation of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and implementation of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) programs at all levels, and includes the first phase of a major renovation project of the West Milford High School auditorium.

Francisco said she “sharpened her pencil” going over the school budget items after board of education members said they wanted no increase to taxpayers when the preliminary budget was presented in March.
She said she was able to locate sources of significant savings for the district in a few areas, including cutting back on the proposed auditorium renovation project. Instead of replacing the air conditioning unit, a repair will be made to the existing one. Also, savings were made in transportation, supplies, operation and maintenance costs and an $800,000 decrease in administration and support services costs through consolidation.
With those changes, as well as anticipated increases in the district's state aid and extraordinary aid for the upcoming school year, Francisco said she was able to maintain the tax levy portion of the budget at the same amount as last year, resulting in the zero percent increase requested by board of education members.
"This board has realized the taxpayers have had enough," said board President Jim Foody. "We are going to do the utmost to contain spending, economize and save where needed without affecting the education programs."
Francisco said she “will continue to work hard to make budgets as cost effective as possible.”
The total budget for 2016-2017 is $73,306,435. The tax levy to support the General Fund remains the same as the 2015-16 budget at $53,542,837 of which $524,720 is for debt service - $13,022 less than last year’s debt service costs. School taxes for the average home assessed at $247,000 will be $4,836.26, which is an increase of $7.18 from last year.
Despite the zero percent increase, this additional amount is due to reduced home valuations in the township, which is something that is not in the hands of the district.
The adopted budget includes the same items as presented in the preliminary budget, with the exception of the air conditioning replacement included in the high school auditorium renovation.
The revised budget includes maintaining program and staffing initiatives implemented in prior budget years, increasing the number of Advanced Placement classes available to students to 22 courses and supporting the required teacher training. It will continue to implement textbook replacements to align with state standards; has 15 new course offerings available to students, STEM and STEAM initiatives for all grade levels, implementation of in-district programs for special education students including pre-school students with autism, and continued growth for Highlander Academy.
New items for 2016-2017 include development of additional intervention programs for all students needing support with an emphasis on extended learning time, expansion of a program for Pre K-2 students with autism, increasing Community Based Instruction (CBI)/Structured Learning Experience at West Milford High School and Highlander Academy, increasing the Learning and Language Disabilities (LLD) self-contained program, new course electives at West Milford High School and Macopin Middle School, and refining teacher expertise in the use of Google Apps for Education.
Capital projects in this budget are phase I of the high school auditorium renovation, which will include auditorium seating, house lighting, ceiling replacement, paint, flooring and carpet, and wall treatment/acoustics; and repaving of various parking lots.
The board voted to accept a proposal for professional services from Di Cara Rubino Architects of Wayne, in the amount of $48,000 to prepare base plans for the design development for auditorium renovations at the high school. The plans must be submitted to the New Jersey Department of Education to amend the district’s Long Range Facilities Plan prior to the work being done.
The district hopes to have phase 1 construction begin in the spring of 2017, following the completion of the roof replacement project set for summer of 2016.

What are your thoughts about the zero percent increase on the school budget? Go to westmilfordmessenger.com and tell us your thoughts.