Tax up $329 in BOE budget

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — A tentative budget for the school year 2017-2018 was discussed Monday by the Glen Ridge Board of Education.
The budget will raise taxes $329.46 on the average-assessed home of $543,553. The tax levy is an increase of 2.54 percent over the 2016-2017 levy. State aid is $780,892, the same as the previous year.

Dirk Phillips, the superintendent of schools, said state aid in 2010-2011 was $1.2 million.

Although the budget was the main topic of discussion, the upcoming referendum was not far away.

The school budget will cover expenses for two additional teachers: a language arts instructor at the high school and a fourth-grade teacher. There will also be an increase in textbook allocation; an increased number of instructional aides; and the preservation of a fourth section of second-graders at Forest Avenue School.

The total operating cost in the tentative budget is $31.9 million. This is an increase of $832,157 from the previous year. Instruction will cost $15.3 million; support services, which includes administrative costs, will be $16.6 million. Total capital expenses are $94,741. A final budget hearing is scheduled for Monday, April 24. Both the tentative and final budgets will be submitted to county authorities.

Phillips said if the referendum passes, with the bonds being purchased late-summer 2018, tax on an average-assessed home will increase $487. But he said taxes will be decreasing by $262 at the end of February 2022 when the repayment period for the bonds for the high school addition will be over. He said the state is providing $4.3 million to help pay the debt service if the referendum passes.