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The Montclair Times
Autism: School budget to be presented
Monday
February 28, 2007
By Lillian M. Aleman
2nd Article:
School district awarded $200,000 grant for
autism programs
Montclair residents will have to
wait several more days before they’ll be able to see how the
Montclair School District’s budget for the 2007-08 school year will
impact their taxes.
Last year’s operating budget was
$98.2 million. If the new budget stays within a state-imposed cap of
a 4 percent increase, then the budget would be about $102.1 million.
The budget had been slated to be
unveiled to the public this past Monday, Feb. 26, during a regularly
scheduled Board of Education meeting. Inclement weather prompted
Superintendent of Schools Frank Alvarez to shut all public school
and district offices.
District officials now expect to
present the 2007-08 operating school budget on Monday, March 5.
The delay will allow for a more
accurate budget presentation as state officials earlier this week
announced an un-expected 6 percent increase in state aid for
Montclair schools.
According to the N.J. Department of
Education, the Montclair School District will receive $8.5 million,
or $528,961 more state aid this upcoming school year than it
received for the 2006-07 school year.
“This aid will help the district
significantly,” Alvarez told The Times.
Though this is the first increase
in state aid the school district has received in five years, Alvarez
said, “This 6 per-cent figure is a bit deceiving. About $228,000 is
slotted for what they are calling ‘targeted at-risk aid.’ These are
monies that we have to develop a plan for that relates to either
students who are academically at-risk, or to support our full-day
kindergarten program or to support literacy initiatives.”
Even with the increase in state
aid, Alvarez said the district’s operating budget for the 2007-08
school year is still about $1 million above the 4 percent budget cap
imposed by the state.
“We are continuing to look at the
number, and we will continue to provide for efficiency and
consolidation in order to get down to a reasonable budget,” Alvarez
said.
For the past several years, less
than 11 percent of the Montclair School District’s operating budget
had been funded by the state.
More than 85 percent of the school
budget, which mainly consists of employees’ salaries and benefits,
is paid by taxpayers.
IMPORTANT DATES
The schedule for budget
presentations and approvals is as follows.
On Monday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m.,
the Montclair Board of Education is expected to adopt a tentative
2007-08 school budget during its regularly scheduled Board of
Education meeting at Central Office, 22 Valley Road.
On Monday, March 19, there will
be a public hearing regarding the operational school budget at 7:30
p.m., in Glenfield Middle School, 25 Maple Ave.
On Wednesday, March 21, the Board
of School Estimate will meet to discuss the 2007-08 school budget at
7:30 p.m., at Central Office, 22 Valley Road.
On Monday, March 26, the Board of
School Estimate will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m., in
Glenfield Middle School, 25 Maple Ave.
On Tuesday, March 27, the Board
of School Estimate will meet in the Municipal Building, 205
Claremont Ave., at 6 p.m., to vote on the budget.
BUDGET APPROVAL
In Montclair, the annual school
budget is approved first by the seven-member Board of Education.
It is then voted on by the Board of
School Estimate, a five-member board consisting of Montclair’s
mayor, two representatives from the Township Council and two Board
of Education members.
This year’s Board of School
Estimate includes Mayor Ed Remsen, 1st Ward Councilman Gerald C.
Tobin, 3rd Ward Councilman Jerold Freier, Board of Education Vice
President Renee Baskerville and Board of Education member Deborah
Wilson.
The Board of School Estimate exists
only in school districts where the municipality’s mayor appoints
members of the Board of Education.
Montclair is one of 20 school
districts in New Jersey that has an appointed, not elected, board of
education.
Voters in 553 other school
districts elect their Board of Education members. Voters also cast
ballots on the an-nual school district budget and on other large
expenditures, such as new schools or capital renovation projects.
Contact Lillian M. Aleman at aleman@montclairtimes.com
School district awarded $200,000
grant for autism programs
February 28, 2007
By Lillian M. Aleman
The Montclair School District is
one of 55 districts in the state that will share $15 million in
funding for autism programs.
Montclair is slated to receive
$200,000 to expand programs and services that are offered to
autistic students.
“We are very proud to be one of 55
districts that are receiving this allocation,” said Superintendent
of Schools Frank Alvarez. “Our staff does a tremendous job working
with students on all levels of the autism spectrum. This is a
testament to the progress they are making in educating our students
with special needs.”
In December 2006, the Montclair
Board of Education approved a resolution to submit an application
for the grant. According to a state Department of Education release,
each district application received a score based on an evaluation of
four components: The state of need, the project description, the
program activity plan and the budget.
“I was pleased to see the wide
range of quality programs that were proposed by the applicants,
including several districts that are using the funds to develop
cross-district programs,” Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy
stated in the release.
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