READER'S WRITE

HIGHLANDS SCHOOL BUDGET DESERVES VOTER SUPPORT

Dear Neighbors,

I’m writing to you on behalf of the Board of Education of the Highlands Elementary School to ask you to vote in favor of our school’s budget on April 18 th. Over the past year, many of you, particularly those of you who, like myself, do not have children enrolled in our school, have asked me what the board is doing to keep Highlands’ rising property taxes from going even higher. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you what we have done to minimize the need for an increase over last year’s budget.

Tri-District Staff Consolidation

While HES has a long history of sharing services and staff with Henry Hudson Regional High School and Atlantic Highlands Elementary School over the years, those efforts accelerated in a dramatic way during 2005-2006. As a result, the three schools have agreed that, as of next fall, we will be sharing the following professional staff:

• The three schools will be sharing one Supervisor of Curriculum Pre-K to 12. This will also help to articulate the curriculum between the three schools, easing the transition for 6 th grade students as they enter Henry Hudson in the 7 th grade. Each school currently has a separate professional in this job.
• The three schools will be sharing one Supervisor of Special Services. HES currently shares its Child Studies Team with only Henry Hudson.
• HES and Henry Hudson will be sharing a Supervisor of Elementary Education Pre-K to 8.

Many of you have also asked me why our board doesn’t support full consolidation of the three school boards and school superintendents. Here’s why:

• Full consolidation would mean that Highlands’ tax dollars would be used to pay off the Atlantic Highlands Elementary School’s debt. In addition, teachers in the three schools would be paid at the highest rate currently being paid. That would mean that teachers’ salaries and benefit costs would actually increase at HES and Henry Hudson.
• Based on current population statistics, the majority of a combined board would be Atlantic Highlands representatives.
• While full consolidation would mean that there would be only one superintendent and one board secretary, New Jersey law requires that each school have its own principal as well as a second administrative professional. There would, therefore, be little to no reduction in the number of administrative positions.

I truly believe that the perception that full consolidation would decrease the HES and Henry Hudson budgets in any significant way is simply incorrect and would result in control of the school budget being taken out of the hands of Highlands voters.

What else have we done?

As always, our most significant line item increases this year are in areas where we have very little control, such as Federal and state mandated special education costs, insurance, health benefit costs and building maintenance. We have taken the following steps to control these items where we could:

• Last year, we consolidated two grades into one classroom due to low student enrollment numbers. We will closely monitor this year’s enrollment numbers and will make further consolidations as warranted.
• We increased the employee health care co-payment by 100% in 2005-2006 and by another 50% in 2006-2007 in order to lower our health insurance costs.
• We participate in a number of cooperative spending plans that save us money on building supplies, paper and other products.

What’s the bottom line?

We all know that the State of New Jersey is in a major fiscal crisis. You may also know that Governor Corzine’s budget provides us only about the same level of state aid that we got last year. In addition, a property relief law passed in 2004, S 1701, limits the amount of money that schools can hold as surplus to provide against unbudgeted or underestimated cost emergencies, such as skyrocketing heating costs. While I can assure you that we have cut every line item in our budget to the bone this year, we still find that it is necessary to ask you to support another modest local tax increase for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Last year, the total local tax levy increase was $235,523 (an 8.6% increase over the prior year). This year we are only budgeting a total increase of $153,888 (a 5.2% increase over last year), despite a significant increase in our fixed costs. I can’t give you the actual penny increase over last year’s due to the property reevaluation, but in new penny terms, we are asking for a 2.89¢ increase. Also, please be aware that a portion of the total increase this year includes amounts previously approved by the voters of Highlands to service our outstanding debt.

Why should you support our budget?

The children of Highlands deserve an excellent public school education and our town will benefit from turning out well-educated students. Whether or not you have children attending HES, keep in mind that property value in Highlands is influenced by the excellence of our public school system. We are all enjoying the benefit of home values that have more than doubled over the past five years. If our schools suffer from overcrowded classrooms and lack of programs, property values will be hurt.

I know that property taxes are out of control in New Jersey and that no one, including our board, want to pay more than we already do, but the increase that we are asking for equals only a few dollars a month for most families. Please keep that in mind and support our budget by voting YES on April 18th.

Thank you so much.

Annemarie Tierney, President
Highlands Board of Education
Highlands, NJ

On behalf of myself and HES School Board members: Rita Caizza, Irene Campbell, Karen Horner, Tara Ryan Kileen, Nancy Messina and John Taylor

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