After passing state and county filters, the modified $22.8 million school budget is now ready for voter approval.
Superintendent Charles Khoury said that state rejections in the initial proposed budget resulted in the subsequent change in figures.
Instead of a 3.9 percent increase from last year’s budget, the proposed spending plan represents a 3.51 increase from last year’s roughly $22 million budget.
Taxpayers would be expected to pay an additional $222 for an average assessed home of $525,500, or $42.26 for every $100,000 of assessed value.
Collected taxes would, in turn, generate a $20.6 million tax levy. This is a $706,304 increase from last year’s tax levy, noted as the portion of the total budget raised through taxes.
Expecting a 3.55 percent tax increase, the Cresskill district does rank low when compared to the Tenafly, Harrington Park and Northvale school districts marked at 6.7 percent, 5.1 percent and 4.3 percent increases, respectively.
Khoury delivered the modified budget presentation March 26 to resident and school board members.
He said that the district has taken steps to counter the tax increase, such as tapping into $459,230 of its surplus.
Funds in the introduced budget provide for the return of special education students to the district. Developing in-district special education classes would save money since it is costlier to send the student out of district, said Khoury.
The district, he continued, has also applied to a grant research program that may award up to $15,000 in training and materials if chosen as an experimental group in a sixth grade Connected Mathematics program. The research would compare Connected Mathematics to another program called Everyday Mathematics.
"If we get that, it will be a home run," said the superintendent.
School officials already planned to move sixth-graders into the new middle school math program within two years, said school board President Rebecca Singer.
"Either way we would be making the change by either delaying [the process] by two years [or getting a grant] to instigate the change," added Singer.
"Taking advantage of space" from school construction, Khoury said that estimated class sizes experienced a positive drop following the installment of sixth-graders at the Cresskill Jr./Sr. High School next fall.
Several parents wowed upon viewing Bryan School and Merritt School class sections totaling 18 students, including one audience member who said, "Those are great numbers."
Concluding the presentation, Khoury again reminded the public to vote in favor of the school budget on Tuesday, April 15.
