(VIDEOS) Watchung Hills budget would feature 1.2 percent tax increase

The 1.2 percent tax hike is well within the state’s 2 percent cap on tax levy increases. Though the levy is increasing across the district’s tax base of Warren Township, Long Hill Township and Watchung, tax implications vary by town.

The tax allocation is based on a state formula accounting for changes in K-8 enrollment versus high school enrollment in each respective town, as well changes in assessed home valuation in each town. Long Hill residents, for the second year in a row, will actually pay less to the high school than they did last year, largely due to higher K-8 enrollment and lower enrollment in the high school.

The average Warren Township homeowner, with an assessed home value of $743,808, would pay about $111 more in taxes to the regional high school district this year. Warren residents would pay about $15 more in taxes per $100,000 of assessed home value, or about $75 more per $500,000 of assessed home value.

The average Watchung homeowner, with an assessed home value of $719,783, would pay about $200 more in taxes to the district. Watchung residents would pay about $25 more in taxes per $100,000 of assessed home value, or about $123 more per $500,000 of assessed home value.

The average Long Hill Township homeowner, with an assessed home value of $506,330, would pay about $130 less in taxes to the district. Long Hill residents would pay about $27 less in taxes per $100,000 of assessed home value, or about $134 less per $500,000 of assessed home value.

Budget Highlights

The proposed budget would fund enhancements to various academic programs and capital projects. Superintendent Elizabeth Jewett and Business Administrator Timothy Stys noted staff members and administrators are required to justify each expenditure in the budget by basing it on one of the district’s five-year strategic plan goals.

The budget includes a total of $4 million for bond referendum projects approved by voters in September to renovate the school library and media center and replace outdated electrical infrastructure. The expenditure has no effect on the tax rate, however, as the entirety of the funding comes from state debt service aid and money previously collected in the district’s reserve accounts.

The budget would deposit some $825,000 in the capital reserve fund for a future project or projects, possibly the creation of a STEAM lab (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math). The STEAM lab is being considered as a possible referendum project several years from now if the school seeks to receive state grant money for the endeavor.

Jewett said the STEAM lab could possibly combine the existing robotics room and surrounding classrooms into a “STEAM suite” featuring modern equipment to be used by various classes and disciplines. While some classes could meet regularly in the lab, she said it could also be open to any number of classes and clubs as needed, akin the computer labs that until recently were ubiquitous in schools.

“What we’re trying to do is put more money into capital reserve for a future project just like this one where we can get that state aid money,” Stys said.

When the district learned it would receive an extra $221,407 in state aid this year, Stys noted, it decided to put about $100,000 into the capital reserve fund and use the other $100,000 as tax relief to residents.

The budget also includes $75,000 to provide new equipment and flooring for the weight room near one of the school gyms, Gym 5/6, $20,000 for new musical instruments and $14,000 for a new wrestling mat.

Some $285,000 would be spent to provide new “modern” furniture for 10 classrooms as part of an ongoing initiative. The first round of furniture upgrades is to occur in five classrooms over spring break in April.

“We’ll see how that goes,” Stys said. “If people like it, if the kids like it, if the teachers like it, we’ll move forward with more.”

Some $36,000 would be spent on new LED lights for the Performing Arts Center (PAC) stage, while $30,000 would be spent to improve wireless communications for the stage crew in the PAC.

The budget also calls for $135,000 to upgrade the high jump area, the only area that was left untouched when the district upgraded its track and fields.

In addition, $280,000 would be spent on a new rooftop ventilation unit for the school’s south cafeteria, $100,000 for door replacements and improvements for fire safety purposes, and $80,000 for a John Deere tractor to replace equipment dating back to the 1980s.

New course offerings for next school year would include semester courses in Journalism 2A, African-American studies, foundations drawing and foundations painting, and full-year courses in Italian Immersion & Culture 1 and Spanish Immersion & Culture 2. The high school will also expand elective offerings in sociology and robotics to incoming freshmen.

Also on the academic side, the high school would expand its English Language Learning program, or ELL, to offer better individualized instruction to the growing number of students in the program, according to Jewett.

The district also plans to add a special education teacher, but will see no net increase in staff due to the retirement of a social studies teacher.

Security And Technology

Stys noted the high school will continue to utilize a School Resource Officer and four full-time and two-part time security officers, each of whom are retired law enforcement officers.

The total salaries for the security team members amount to $325,000.

“To me, since I’ve been here, I’ve been amazed at how far ahead we are of most other high schools,” Stys said of the security staffing. “We do a really good job at this, and they do a fantastic job.”

The budget also calls for $35,000 for the continued replacement of older video surveillance cameras. Also included is $127,000 the district received in state grant funding to upgrade its notification system, Stys said.

On the technology side, the district is entering the fourth year of its one-to-one Google Chromebook laptop initiative, meaning students in all four grade levels will have a laptop supplied by the district next school year. The new round of laptop purchases will cost $195,000.

In another ongoing tech initiative, the district would spend $60,000 for 10 new classroom SMARTboards, part of an effort to add the equipment to each classroom in the school.

Outdated laptops for certain staff members would also be replaced at a cost of $46,500. Desktop computers would be replaced in two classrooms, including the robotics room, at a cost of $38,000.

The district will also use $150,000 in federal E-rate funding to purchase 30 network switches.

Budget Drivers

Unlike other school districts across the state, Stys said Watchung Hills is fortunate to see relatively stable healthcare cost increases in recent years since it transferred to the State Healthcare Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP).

“Since joining the SHIP, our increases in healthcare premiums have been below or at 3 percent, and in this day and age that’s fantastic,” he said. “If you can keep going like that, it just allows us to do a lot more within this budget.”

Salaries and benefits, which take up the bulk of the budget, have also been stable, in part due to attrition.

“When those two things are stable,” Stys said of salaries and healthcare costs, “we can do a lot more in terms of capital projects and helping the taxpayers at the same time.”

School staff members will pay a combined $1.3 million in Chapter 78 contributions toward healthcare costs, which Stys called “a significant number.”

Another important budget driver is student enrollment, which is projected to drop again next school year to 1,962 students, down from 1,987 currently. Enrollment peaked in the 2015-2016 school year with 2,231 students.

In addition to the roughly $221,000 increase in state aid, Stys pointed to the $1.3 million in state funding secured through September’s media center referendum as a significant way to offset costs. The expected aid increase would bring state aid up to more than $1.8 million, on top of the referendum funding.

Going forward, Stys said the district expects to see substantial energy savings in future years as it enrolls in the state’s Energy Savings Improvement Program, or ESIP. The board voted unanimously at the meeting to seek bids from energy savings companies to conduct a “deep dive” audit of how the district can save money through incentives to implement energy-saving measures.

Changes to lighting and ventilation infrastructure, and possibly even the installation of solar panels, are likely in the district’s future through ESIP.

“It’s paid for by the state and your energy savings are a ton,” he said. “You won’t see anything in next year’s budget, but the work will start getting done.”

Stys and Jewett said the budget is a balancing act between prioritizing the district’s goals in a given year with the impact on taxpayers. Stys pointed to the district splitting the extra state aid money between tax relief to residents and planning for the future.

He said the five-year strategic plan has been “a tremendous help” in preparing the budget and establishing priorities.

“I can’t overemphasize that enough, how it helps us administratively prepare our budget,” he said. “We can focus in on what the district’s, the board’s, the administration’s needs are, and it comes to life through this vehicle. There is no doubt this has been a huge change and help for us.”

If introduced by the board on March 17, the tentative budget would then be forwarded to the Somerset County Superintendent’s Office for review and approval.

Jewett and Stys would then present the budget to the governments of each sending district town before the budget returns to the high school board for final adoption and a public hearing on Tuesday, April 28, per the current schedule.