Administrators: Budget Looks to Curriculum, Technology Improvements

School budget season marks an almost typical struggle with healthcare costs, mandatory curriculum updates and the need for improvements to district buildings and to the district’s technology; this year’s budget season was no different for Hillsborough’s administrators.

Though initially proposed with the possibility of privatizing about 270 positions, the district’s final budget reflects the $3 million in contract concessions from the Hillsborough Education Association and Board of Education contract—and the money saved will go directly toward instructional materials, staff training and other areas, administrators said.

The concessions include requiring HEA members to contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health care costs from April 1 to June 30 of this year, then having them pay 12 percent toward health care premiums in 2011-2012 and 18 percent toward health care premiums in 2012-2013.

“The salary and benefit line is going down for the first time,” Superintendent Jorden Schiff said.  “That’s not an easy thing to do.  The settlement allows us to take the money used for salaries and use it for instructional supplies rather than benefits.”

While the budget addresses several concerns for the district and avoids the privatization proposed in the original budget draft, it is contingent on the voters accepting it, Schiff said.  If they do not, anything is on the table when it comes to reductions.

The budget totals $110,679,700, with $78,212,946 of the budget coming from local taxes.  The budget itself is a $3,478,817 increase over last year’s $107,200,883 budget, which amounts to an about 3 percent increase. However, the tax levy increases by $1,536,889 —about 2 percent, which is the state cap on tax levies—over the $76,676,057 generated last year.

Of the $78,212,946 from local taxes, $77,401,727 will come from Hillsborough taxpayers, while Millstone Borough taxpayers will contribute $811,219, a total increase of $15,906 for Millstone taxpayers. 

The Millstone portion of the tax levy is determined by an equalized value of the property tax and by student enrollment, according to the funding formula set by former Somerset County Superintendent Trudy Doyle.  The formula was determined after the 2009 consolidation of the state’s non-operating school districts into the districts those students attended.

While most of the district’s revenue comes from local taxes, the district anticipates about $2,722,418 from federal sources.  The funds include No Child Left Behind Act Title I – Title IV grants and Individuals with Disabilities Act funding.  Those items have been budgeted at an about 15 percent decrease, which is a standard budgeting practice, Business Administrator Aiman Mahmoud said.

Federal revenues also include $873,097 from the Education Jobs fund portion of the federal stimulus package.  Stipulations attached to the funding prevents recipients from using it to fund positions, since those would then need to be cut.

“It’s a one-shot deal,” Schiff said.  “If you just use it to lower class sizes in that one year, it’s gone the next year.  We’re looking at ways to best effectuate added value.”

The money will likely go toward additional staff training, though the district and the board are still discussing how to use it, Schiff added.

Several board members noted that the budget goes to the state-set 2 percent cap while also receiving a $1 million increase in state aid from last year, however, the budget holds the instructional programs and staff spared after last year’s cuts.  It also aims to address state-mandated curriculum improvements as well as providing needed technology upgrades.

The budget includes an about 2 million dollar increase for improvement of instructional services over the amount budgeted last year.  The increase will go toward rewriting kindergarten through high school level math curricula, rewriting first through twelfth grade science.  In addition, about $780,000 of the $3 million improvement of instructional services line item will go toward new textbooks, trade books and learning supplies that are given to students for math, science and literacy, Schiff and Mahmoud said.  The instructional improvement item includes about $40,000 for testing materials too, they added.

“The curriculum updates are a function of state mandates,” Schiff said.  “Every district is faced with an excellerated schedule and we are now required to move it forward very quickly.

Technology changes also factor into the increase in the instructional services, particularly a student information system that would allow students, teachers and parents to track assignments, test scores and absences, increasing the use of wireless technology in the schools, and increasing the number of overhead projectors that integrate with the school’s computers. 

The student information system, which board members mentioned during meetings last year, would likely be put into use in late 2012, if purchased.

Though several schools currently have overhead projectors—many purchased by the school’s Home and School Association—the district hopes to make the distribution more even.  It’s hoping to purchase about 300 of the projectors at a cost of about $3,000 for purchase and installation, and pay for the purchase over a five-year span—a payment of about $200,000 a year.

“These will last more than five years, so the investment we’re making is a smart move,” Schiff said.

Other technology improvements include updating school security systems by installing additional security cameras at several schools, and replacing a worn-out intercom in Triangle Elementary School.