$19M Budget Passed by Bloomingdale BOE

The Bloomingdale Board of Education approved the district’s 2013-14 preliminary budget of $19,279,099 at its Monday meeting. The budget will now be sent to the Passaic County Executive Superintendent of Schools for approval.

Before the budget was passed, Business Administrator George Hagl explained that the tax levy will be $15,422,086. For the average Bloomingdale house assessed at $254,000, this would mean an annual increase of $242.29 or $20.19 a month.

Some of the budget’s major program and service appropriations include $2.8 million for teachers’ salaries, supplies and textbooks; $1.16 million for special education and instruction; total administration costs at $322,269; about $1.1 million each for maintenance and transportation; and about $2.35 million in allocated benefits, such as social security contributions and health benefits.

The district will appropriate more than $1.2 million in facility acquisition and construction services for projects, including locker replacements and fixing the roof at the Walter T. Bergen School; replacing the gym doors at the Martha B. Day School and Samuel R. Donald School and the continuation of tile removal and replacement at SRD.

Hagl said the district is able to use $721,755 of current surplus to offset next year’s budget. He is anticipating the district to start the 2013-14 school year on July 1 with just about $1 million in surplus and end June 2014 with about $365,345.

Board member Sheldon Bross noted that the district is not budgeting for any tuition reserve.

“We probably should, but we don’t have those funds available to us at the moment,” Hagl said.

He explained the district is estimating $249,000 in federal grant aid, including from the No Child Left Behind Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act initiatives. However, Hagl said none of those funds will be projected to offset next year’s budget due to the effect sequestration might have on the district receiving aid.

“There is a possibility this aid will not be coming our way,” Hagl said. “The [finance] committee felt it was prudent not to use these funds to offset the budget because of the potential shortfall in our budgeting process.”

The business administrator said additional funds could also come from Butler showing interest in one of Bloomingdale’s special education programs. If the district receives any of those grant funds, Hagl said the board would have to pass a resolution in June to transfer money into tuition reserve for future need.

This is the second year there will be no public needed for the school budget vote since the board decided to eliminate the public vote last year. However, there will be a public budget hearing at 7 p.m. on March 27 at the Walter T. Bergen School for residents to give their input before the final budget is adopted.