Kinnelon School Tax Up 4.7 Percent; Growing Student Population Boosting Costs
Posted on: Tuesday, 14 March 2006, 15:00 CST
By MAYA KREMEN, STAFF WRITER
KINNELON A rapidly growing student population could mean a higher tax bill this year.
The district has seen the number of students increase by almost 50 percent from a decade ago, with an especially large freshman class in the coming school year. Costs generated by the influx could mean a 4.7 percent tax increase for the owner of the average home, according to a preliminary 2006-07 school budget introduced by the Board of Education on Monday night.
Board trustees voted unanimously to adopt the initial $31.1 million spending plan.
The budget calls for owners of properties assessed at $390,000, the average used by the district, to pay $6,642. With voter approval, the district would support the budget with $26 million in taxes, an increase of 6.1 percent.
More than half of the expected increase would be driven by teachers' salaries.
School administrators plan to hire two new guidance counselors, five new high school instructors and one full-time and two part- time elementary teachers. The new salaries would push instructional costs from $12.4 million to $13 million. Guidance services alone would increase by $149,886, nearly a 30 percent jump from the current school year. Employee benefits and transportation costs are expected to increase as well.
School Business Administrator Alice Robinson said the district struggled to increase staff while staying within a state-mandated cap on increases in tax-supported spending.
"We put so much of our resources into new staffing for the high school that it isn't even a maintenance budget," she said. "We reduced other items to get there."
Items trimmed included new teachers and aides for the elementary and middle schools, training for teachers and certain supplies, such as library books and easels for art classes, she said.
Superintendent James Opiekun said he expected student numbers to continue to increase. "We have our smallest senior class in a long time, and bigger classes on the way," he said.
A budget hearing for the public will be held on March 27 at 8 p.m. at Kinnelon High School, 121 Kinnelon Road.
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E-mail: kremenm@northjersey.com
(SIDEBAR, page L03)
By the numbers
K-12 students expected next year in Kinnelon: 2,170
K-12 students in 1996: 1,528
Incoming Kinnelon High freshmen expected next year: 180
Graduating seniors: 120
Teachers in district: 178
Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
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