Montclair BOE Gives Its Final Nod To A $116 Million School Budget (NJ)
March 24, 2014
The Montclair Board of Education has given its final approval for a proposed $116 million operating budget for the Montclair School District’s 2014-2015 academic year.
The approval vote of 6 to 1, with David Cummings casting the lone “no” vote, came during the board’s public meeting Monday night. The 70-page spending plan for Montclair’s 11 public schools will now go before Montclair’s Board of School Estimate for a round of public hearings that begin next week.
District Chief Operating Officer Brian Fleischer said the proposed budget cleared another important regulatory hurdle last week when the plan was approved by the Essex County Executive School Superintendent’s Office as required by state law.
According to Fleischer, the budget calls for a 4.41 percent increase in the school portion of t he property tax.
A homeowner with an average dwelling assessed at $505,495, and who now pays $16,670 in total property taxes can expect to see the property-tax bill increase approximately $379.12 through a 12-month period beginning July 1.
Schools Superintendent Penny MacCormack said the budget will not require any cuts in staff or programs and will allow the district to restore world language instruction for its kindergarten-through-5th grade students by including funds for the equivalent of 4.5 new language teachers.
The board also approved a capital budget of $2.8 million.
MacCormack said the capital projects include repairs to all 11 of the districts. The board set aside $1 million to improve and upgrade digital technology in Montclair High School and other schools.
Fleischer said the budget was increased $402,000 by the board in an 11th-hour revision proposed last week by Board of Education member Norman Rosenblum.
“The additional funding supports the hire of three additional kindergarten teachers and three additional kindergarten aides, all with benefits, to open three new kindergarten classes,” Fleischer said.
The additional staff will allow the district to reduce the average kindergarten class size from 24 students down to 21, by creating one new kindergarten class in Charles Bullock School and two in Nishuane School.
Meanwhile, Fleischer told the board that the district’s Central Office administrative staffing is “very lean.”
“Montclair spends very little money on per-pupil administration costs when compared with other school districts,” he said. “In the most recent year for which comparative budget data is available, Montclair has ranked lowest in per-pupil spending on administrative costs of all 12 of the k-12 school districts in the county.”
Fleischer said the district’s $1,287-per-pupil administrative cost is “well below both the state average and the state median.”
<div> ;