School taxes to rise by $82 for average home in town

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Board of Education unanimously passed its 2016-2017 budget Tuesday, April 26. Homeowners with an average-assessed Bloomfield residence of $270,000 will be paying $82 more in school taxes next year to educate township children.

The general operating budget for the schools will be $94 million. This is a 3.42 percent increase over the previous year when the operating budget was $91 million. The amount of property taxes to be levied will be $70.5 million; state aid will come to about $21 million; and money from the fund balance, some $2.2 million, will be combined to meet the amount needed for the general operating budget.

It is estimated that 6,436 students will be attending Bloomfield district schools this fall. Of these, 5,520 will be general-education students and 916 will be special-education students. Respectively, their educations will cost Bloomfield taxpayers $28.6 million and $9.5 million.

Personnel will be added to the district payroll next school year. There will be a K-12 supervisor of science and an interventionalist at the elementary level. One bilingual teacher will be hired for the high school. A districtwide, computer technician will also be added.

Facility repairs, totaling $1 million, are in the forefront next year. Although far from comprehensive, the improvements will include stage area work at Berkeley Avenue School with repairs to the stage arch and a refurbished stage floor. Brookdale Elementary will have its media room converted to a classroom and the bathrooms will be upgraded. Carteret Elementary will get a re-paved playground and at Demarest Elementary, the gym bleachers and the second-floor hallway will be replaced. At Forest Glen, the first-floor hallway will be replaced and the bathrooms at Fairview will be upgraded while the stage curtains will be replaced. The gym floor at Oak View will be refinished and Franklin School will have its drinking fountains replaced. The sidewalk in front of Watsessing Elementary will also be replaced.

Work will be done at the high school gyms, including refinishing the main gym floor. Altogether, improvements to the high school will come to $854,000. Districtwide, $307,000 will be spent on security.

BOE President Dan Anderson, in a telephone interview, said cuts in state funding short-change Bloomfield children.

“Obviously, we could do more with more money,” he said. “But each student is getting the best education we can give.”

Anderson said a problem with state aid to public schools is that it is being diverted to charter schools. He anticipates a resolution to be adopted soon by the board, and forwarded to Trenton, confronting the issue.