Cranbury School Board Sends Tax Hike to Voters

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board voted unanimously to adopt a $17.7 million budget that includes a 3.9-cent increase on the tax rate, which would raise school taxes $236 for the average Cranbury household.

In total, a resident with a home valued at the township average of $608,331 would pay $5,967 in school taxes if the public approves the budget next month. The district has been allocated $176,258 in state aid for next year and the budget also includes $25,487 in carryover federal money from Federal Education Jobs Stimulus Funds the district didn’t use this past September.

Board President Lynne Schwarz said a lot of work went into lowering next year’s expenditures, which are the lowest they’ve been in three years and are 2.6-percent lower than the 2010-2011 budget.

“We are really proud to be able to have achieved that,” she said.

The largest expenditure increase comes from staff training and support, which is a direct result of last year’s sudden withdrawal of $859,000 in state aid that had previously been promised to the district. At the time, Cranbury’s staff offered to freeze contracted professional development hours so other school programs would not be cut.

During the presentation, Schwarz said that despite a 40-student decrease in enrollment since 2009, this budget allows for an expansion to three sections of first grade and reinstatement of full-year art, industrial arts and French courses in kindergarten and first-grade at the . Those three subjects had been cut as full-year courses after the state aid was rescinded in the middle of the year. Kindergarten will have two sections of 28 students.

Other previously trimmed programs like the book club, school play and newspaper (which is now a literary magazine) will all be funded by the school’s budget.

“We believe that it’s critical to have those programs, and for the most part we have taken them back into the school budget,” Schwarz said.

Other programs that were previously cut, such as wrestling and softball, will not be reinstated, while the issue of field trip bussing is still under discussion.

Voting on the budget will take place at the Township Building on Wednesday, April 27, from 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. A user-friendly copy of the budget is available for viewing on the school's website, www.cranburyschool.org. Schwarz also said that any members of the public with additional questions can email the board at boe@cranburyschool.org.

Now that the budget has been adopted, the Board of Education can no longer make additional changes. Should the budget not pass, it will be turned over to the Township Committee for retooling.

Voters will also elect three Board of Education members from the April 27 ballot. Newcomer Pramod Chivate will join incumbents Jennifer Cooke, Kevin Fox and Evelyn Spann in the race. The three who are elected will serve three-year terms.

The next meeting of the Cranbury Board of Education will be Tuesday, April 5.