Schools

Rumson BOE Approves $13.58M Operating Budget to Keep Programs and Class Size "Status Quo"

The 2011-12 school budget calls for 1.9 percent tax increase.

The Rumson School District held a public hearing to discuss its budget for the 2011-12 school year on March 23. The budget passed with an unanimous vote from the Board of Education (BOE) and no complaints from the half dozen residents at the presentation.

"We don't look at budget as dollars, but an allocation of resources to best meet the needs of our students," Rumson Superintendent Scott Feder said.

The 2011-2012 operating budget approved by the BOE is $13,585,149. The total tentative budget is $14,793,821 including special revenue and debt service, which is $458,732 more than the current school year budget. The total tax levy is $13.84 million. That means that residents will have to pay 44.3 cents per $100 of assessed property value. That rate doesn’t include municipal, regional high school or county taxes.

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"This year the increase in operating budget is just under one-cent, so the result is an additional $100 per million dollar assessment," said Denise Friedmann, the business administrator for the Rumson School District.

This year the school district received $121,000 in state aid. "Slightly different than last year," joked Feder at the start of his presentation. Last year they received no state aid and had to cut 16 jobs. That money coming into the district helps them to keep everything at "status quo". Other sources of revenue discussed during the presentation include:

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  • Pay to play, where parents have to pay for their children to be involved in extra-curricular activities, will not increase and will stay the same.
  • The district plans on increasing summer programming to two or three weeks to try and bring in more money while offering good programs for their students to participate in. They made almost $6,000 last year with one week of programming, said Feder.
  • Next year the district is looking at over $90,000 of revenue from tuition students. In the 2010-11 school year, the school district had 6 students come from outside of Rumson. In the upcoming year, there are already more enrolled. Superintendent Scott Feder made it clear that they only accept out of borough students in grades where there is room. "I have already had to turn away 3 students for grade levels where the enrollment was already too high," he said.  "We're not going to sacrifice anything for the Rumson students but we can bring in this $90,000 plus without increasing our costs and still maintaining our excellence here."

In developing the 2011-12 school budget, the district also looked at ways to save money:

  • Faculty and staff are now being asked to pay for 5 percent of their benefits, which will also help save the district some money.
  • Shared services are another way the district plans on saving money. The district shares a supervisor of grounds and maintenence with Rumson Fair Haven Regional High School, they will share curriculum writing with the Monmouth County District and this year they will share software and professional training (example: anti-bullying training) costs with the peninsula district.
  • A new and exciting shared service agreement has been developed between the district and the borough. The borough already helps the school maintain their grounds with snow removal and mowing of their fields, but now they have also agreed to help the district expand their fields and build a new playground at Deane Porter. The borough has raised money for the school district and has agreed to match, dollar for dollar, whatever the district puts into the project. “Toms Rogers has been fantastic,” said Feder. “He has helped us capitalize on what the borough has to offer.”

Programs that will be enhanced by next year’s budget include:

  • The Rumson School District Guidance Program. Currently there is one guidance councilor for the Rumson School District. “That isn’t enough to meet our needs of our students on a daily basis,” said Feder. They are planning on hiring someone to work at Deane Porter to fix this problem.
  • They also are looking to hire a part-time behavior specialist to help with children in the district with special needs.
  • The Response to Intervention program will also be enhanced next year. This program helps faculty and staff identify special needs early on so that they can be addressed as soon as possible. The district will be spending money to purchase software and offering training on this subject. “We want to be able to get kids what they need as soon as they need it,” said Feder.

Feder also pointed out that out of the 55 districts in Monmouth County, Rumson has one of the lowest per pupil costs every year. This year’s $11,865 per student is the 6th lowest in Monmouth County. That number is the lowest of all “J” districts – or its demographic ranking – in the state. He also said that Rumson School District ranks in the top of the state for the amount of 8th graders that graduate with an advanced proficiency in Language Arts.  

Feder said that he is happy with the proposed budget. "I think we've proposed a pretty solid budget. We're looking to maintain excellence at a low cost."

The budget now awaits the public’s vote, which is scheduled for April 27, 2011 between 2:00-9:00 p.m. According to the Rumson Board of Education, voters will report to their “regular voting place” this year. So if you normally vote at Borough Hall during elections, that is where you will go to vote on the budget.

If you are going to be out of town, the deadline to vote by mail is April 20, 2011. Registration ends on April 6. 


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