NORTH BRUNSWICK – The township school district will share $1 million of its state aid funding to bring relief to taxpayers.
The North Brunswick School District will receive $2.75 million in state aid, the second highest amount in additional funding awarded this year, after being underfunded $33 million in past funding cycles.
North Brunswick has consistently been the 10th most underfunded district out of 570 districts in New Jersey, according to Superintendent of Schools Brian Zychowski.
“Underfunding in North Brunswick schools has been a major issue because the taxpayers have been paying an unfair burden,” Zychowski said during a Township Council meeting on Aug. 7.
Zychowski said the board will voluntarily appropriate $1 million – which is more than one third of the total amount – to tax relief by the way of debt service for the new school building project. He said that the district will bond $35 million in October, but that the $1 million will provide a three-year holiday for taxpayers.
“We made a promise to our taxpayers when we went out for the new school; they’ve been paying our budget for many, many years,” he said.
After a proposal for two new schools in North Brunswick failed in 2015, residents approved a plan to build one new school and renovate an existing school during a special election in December of 2016.
The construction of a new seventh/eighth grade middle school on land near the Renaissance development on Route 130 south, plus alterations, renovations and improvements to Linwood Middle School on Linwood Place, totals $77,348,000, with state funds in the amount of $8,921,775.
Linwood Middle School is currently for sixth to eighth grade students; the renovations will change the school to house just fifth and sixth grades.
The Early Childhood Center (ECC), which is currently at a building the township leases from Milltown, and the Board of Education offices, set inside the old Maple Meade School on Georges Road, will be moved to Linwood. STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) programs will also be expanded.
The tax impact will be approximately $19 per month, or $228 per year, on the average assessed home of $157,080.
The new school should be built by 2020, with the renovations at Linwood expected for completion six months after that.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the building project will be held on Sept. 8. Zychowski said more details will be announced soon.
Contact Jennifer Amato at jamato@newspapermediagroup.com.
