HILLSBOROUGH: Staff contract sure to influence next school budget 

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
School costs take more than two-thirds of the township property taxes, and people will have their final chance Monday night to comment on the proposed $123 million budget for 2016-17 year. A final vote probable that night.
The total budget of $124.9 million is 3.3 percent more than the current year’s $120.85 million. It would raise the amount of tax money for Hillsborough by 2.7 percent and the tax rate by 1.3 percent. For Millstone, the total tax dollar increase would be 3 percent and the tax rate 2.6 percent.
Hanging over the fiscal situation is the fact that the district and the staffing association are in contract negotiation for the salaries and benefits for teachers, support aides, secretaries, custodians and others.
The budget doesn’t obviously tip the board’s hand on how much money it thinks it will have to spend on the most costly total items in the budget.
Hillsborough Education Association staffers have come to recent meetings to remind the board of community service and extra duties that often perform without compensation.
At the April 10 meeting, about 150 to 200 T-shirt-wearing association members filled the meeting room at Auten Road Intermediate School.
HEA President Henry Goodhue told the board at the April 10 meeting the budget should be “an expression of collective beliefs and values.” He pitched for people over things; where technology has a lifetime of three to seven years, he said, a better investment is made “in human capital.”
Educators have a far greater value than computers, he said. Although people often talk about a teacher who made on impact on their life, no student remembers a machine years later, he said.
One teacher told the board that because of increased contribution to health benefits, her take-home pay is lower today than 2011.
A decrease in the number of students will enable the school district to reduce staff positions next year, according to the details of the budget. Overall, the district anticipates 90 fewer students in elementary (K-4) schools, said Superintendent Jorden Schiff at the March 14 school board meeting. Last year, the budget estimated the October 2015 school population would be 7,249 pupils.
That will lead to a reduction of six elementary-level teachers, he said, and three at the high school (in the English, math and social studies areas).
In the current school year, the school has added a total of almost eight fulltime positions, including 5 and one-half instructional assistants. The school plans to hire for only a few jobs in the next budget, including a parttime sign language teacher as a world language option.
The overall net decrease is seven-tenths of a fulltime position, Dr. Schiff said. Most of reductions will be accomplished by attrition, he said he anticipated.
The budget stays under the state-mandated 2 percent cap only by invoking a health benefits costs waiver for $841,400. At the budget’s introduction in March, those numbers brought a “no” vote on the waiver and overall budget from Board Vice President Jennifer Haley and an abstention from Judith Haas. Both measures passed by the 5-1-1 vote.
Ms. Haley said she hoped the board could find a way to lower the overall budget increase to 2 percent, a principle she said she believed in
Dr. Schiff said the estimated increase in taxes to support the school would be $71 for a property assessed at $350,000 in Hillsborough, and $153 for the same assessment in Millstone.
Other budget highlights:
– With the passage of a borrowing referendum, the school will proceed this summer with the replacement of artificial turf on the high school athletic field, and redesign, repair and repaving of the middle school parking lot.
– The school’s curriculum emphasis will be on science by funding materials, supplies, curriculum writing and training.
 — More Chromebook tablets will be bought for the 3rd and 4th grades.
– More high school courses will be offered for community college credit.