BOE approves higher tax levy

By ROBERT LINNEHAN

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time the members of the Haddonfield Board of Education were struggling to bridge a gap of almost $1 million after Gov. Christie slashes their state funding. This year the BOE is struggling to decide what to do with the additional aid awarded to the district by the state.

The board approved the preliminary $30.02 million 2011–2012 school district budget, which includes a 1.73 percent increase to the local school tax levy. Effectively the tax increase is about 2 percent because Haddonfield’s ratables dropped by more than $7 million this year.

For a taxpayer with an averaged assessed home of a little more than $491,000 it will mean an increase of $139 in next year’s tax bill if the budget is approved at its public hearing on March 24 and at the district elections on April 27.

While the tax rate was easily settled on, the decision of what to do with over $267,000 in state aid took some time. Luckily, district representatives found that the state also awarded Haddonfield $50,588 in an education jobs fund, so three educational assistants that were scheduled to be reduced were reinstated into the 2011–2012 budget.

About $182,000 of the state aid will be used for capital improvements to the high school and middle school. Both auditoriums are in dire need of being repainted and the high school wrestling room is in a state of disrepair.

However, $85,000 that had been earmarked for an HMHS wide wireless network has been scrapped for the time being. Instead the money was banked for “technology/capital improvements” in the budget.

“I’m not sure if we’re quite there yet for a school wide wireless network,” said Drew Hansen, BOE member and chairman of the technology committee.

Sharon Stokes, an HMHS teacher and member of the HEA, said the money might be better spent in bring in more smartboards and projectors into the classroom at the high school.

Only about 50 percent of the high school classrooms have smartboards.

The money might also be better spent improving the schools wireless “hotspots,” said Joe Ehrhardt, BOE member and technology committee member. There are varying reports of how students using laptops in classrooms can affect education, he said, and the district hasn’t investigated these factors.

“Some experts will tell you it just adds another wall between the student and a teacher,” he said.

It also brings up the question as to whether the district would provide students with laptops, another high cost, he said.

“We don’t want to have a have and have not type of situation in the high school,” he said.

The board will investigate the best way possible to spend the $85,000 in technology improvements through its committee and input from district staff.