Taxes up $351 for average home in proposed BOE budget

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Glen Ridge Board of Education is especially forward-looking at this time with the budget for the 2018-2019 school year being considered plus a recently acquired building that was once a school now being retrofitted for students, possibly in September 2019.

In its tentative budget submitted to Essex County authorities, Glen Ridge School District will see an increase in state aid and taxes for the 2018-2019 school year. State aid will increase by $165,159, to $946,051. It is anticipated that taxes will increase $351.85 per average-assessed Glen Ridge home, which is valued at $547,957. The tax increase is at the allowable 2 percent cap, but a decrease of .46 percent from the previous year. The total tax levy will be $29.1 million. The total operating budget is $33.3 million.

Administration costs will be $1.7 million next year, a decrease of $38,568. Schools Superintendent Dirk Phillips said this reflects a reduction in the general expenses associated with school administration. Library service costs will also decrease by a modest $30,299. In the tentative 2018-2019 budget, library and educational media services are $559,652.

“The reduction of the library expense is related to the retirement of the Ridgewood Avenue School librarian,” Phillips said. “The current library is at the top of the salary guide and their replacement will be hired at a lower step.”

There will be no personnel reductions, but there will be an additional mathematics teacher and assistant principal.
An in-district therapeutic service for Glen Ridge High School students with behavioral and emotional issues will be expanded to Ridgewood Avenue School. The service is called Effective School Solutions. It will add $116,000 to the budget.

Phillips said there is funding for security in the budget. Video surveillance is to be upgraded at all Glen Ridge schools.
GR Board of Education President Elisabeth Ginsburg said that although the proposed budget includes the hiring of a high school mathematics teacher and an assistant middle school principal, everything right now is tentative.

“Including the hires until we get our health insurance premium numbers and plug them into the budget,” she said. “Health costs are one of our major cost drivers, so the insurance premium number is a critical component of our financial planning.”

Ginsburg said the district has made steady security upgrades since Sandy Hook. “We will certainly do more, in consultation with the GR Police Department and other law enforcement agencies,” she said. “But we have not discussed specifics yet. Governor Murphy has talked about putting extra money in the FY ’19 budget for school security, but, of course, the state budget is only in the early stages of being finalized. We cannot be sure about those funds either.”

Looking ahead, Ginsburg said she was delighted that the Central School building, located on Bloomfield Avenue at High Street, is again part of the Glen Ridge Board of Education.

“The process has been long and sometimes difficult,” she said, “but the end result, relief from overcrowding in our elementary schools, will be worth it.”

Built in 1926, the Central School housed Glen Ridge students until it was sold in 1980. Since then it has been occupied by a succession of banks, a hospice and medical offices. Its acquisition comes after nearly four years of research, planning, outreach and negotiations.

The building was purchased for $5.1 million and financed through the sale of bonds following a successful public referendum in March 2017. Phillips said the district is looking forward to the day when students and teachers bring Central School back to life.

“If renovations proceed according to plan, the new Central School should be ready for students in September 2019,” Ginsburg said.
The building was purchased from the Wells Fargo Bank. It will be renovated and become the third lower-elementary school in the borough, housing grades pre-kindergarten to second grade. An April 30 public hearing and vote on the final 2018-2019 school budget will be held at the GR BOE meeting.