The South Orange-Maplewood School Board is expected to pass the preliminary 2009-2010 budget at Monday night's
meeting, which will include plans for district-wide, all-day kindergarten and is expected to come in with less than the 4%
tax levy increase allowed for under state law.
"In the position we're in, we are quite fortunate,"
School Board Member Beth Daugherty said. "We are not as severe. We have been able to see some significant savings in
the energy use we have seen as well as operational maintenance."
The overall district budget proposal
put forth last month called for a 4% tax levy increase to $94 million. That would be added to an estimated $7 million in state
funds. The entire budget was
estimated at $105 million, not including debt service.
But, since that
meeting, figures could have changed. Daugherty had no specific on the exact budget numbers set to be considered Monday
night. School Board President Mark Gleason also declined to provide exact current budget figures. He had said in January that
Superintendent Brian Osborne had included requests for more summer school options, English language arts, and increased support
for
"struggling students."
He added late Sunday that "there is a substantial
amount of technological investment in this budget. The proposal is to put a big chunk of the ($3 million) surplus into technology
spending." Among those items is $500,000 for wireless infrastructure at Columbia High School and several other schools;
$400,000 for technical studies at the high school and middle schools; and $200,000 for mutimedia classrooms in every school.
The
school district is also counting on an enrollment boost in some elementary school grades, requiring the likely addition of
at least 10 new teaching positions.
But, Gleasons stressed that the final state funding numbers remain
unconfirmed until next month. If the state's own budget problems reduce funds that could require further budget cuts here.
Also, he noted, is the potential for federal stimulus funding, another unknown.
"If the state whacks
us, we will have to look at other cuts," Gleason said.
Also on tap for Monday's meeting is a discussion
of leveling, the process by which middle school and high school students are placed in some subject classes. "There is
a push to review it and potentially change the way children are assigned to classes," said Daugherty. "How it would
possibly change and what exactly is going to be discussed. There are a zillion options."
