Galloway Superintendent Set to Present Proposed Budget on Heels of Boost in State Aid

The Galloway Township School system is set to unveil its proposed budget at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting, but it received some good news early on Wednesday night.

The state will provide $21,707,561 according to numbers released by the Department of Education Wednesday night.

The number follows up on what Gov. Chris Christie said during his budget address Tuesday afternoon in which he promised to increase state aid to schools in the proposed 2012 budget.

Last year, Galloway schools received $21,140,618 in aid, translating to an additional $566,943 in state aid this year.

It is still $2 million less than what the school system received for 2008-09.

Meanwhile, the Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District, which includes Absegami and Cedar Creek high schools, will see an increase of $631,803. The budget for 2011-12 allows for $29,117,557 in state aid. That is up from $28,485,754.

“Of course, we were pleased to report that an increase in state aid was received by our school district,” Galloway Superintendent of Schools Annette Giaquinto said of a meeting she and Business Administrator Vickie Tomasco had with the Board of Education Finance Committee Wednesday night.

She also noted that the school’s ratables decreased, while charter school costs were increasing.

The increased state aid will be welcomed by a school system that has been forced to make numerous cuts to school programs recently. The highest profile of these cuts have been to the sports programs at the middle school.

A group of parents has banded together in an attempt to resurrect the baseball and softball programs via fundraising. They must raise $5,225 by April 30, and will be holding a fundraising meeting Saturday morning at 10 at the Germania Firehouse, 312 S Cologne Ave. Anyone interested in helping with the fundraising may attend.

“Since we had drafted the budget in a conservative manner, we are reviewing what cuts were made last year that may be able to be restored as well as requests made during this year’s process that were not entered into the budget draft,” Giaquinto said via e-mail Thursday morning. “District goals will be a priority in revising the budget. Based on board input last night and additional input from our administrative team, Vickie and I are working to finalize the proposed budget.”

That proposed budget will be presented Monday night at the board’s meeting. Giaquinto anticipates a vote will be taken at that time, and that the proposed budget will be sent to the county office by March 4, the deadline for such things.

The board would then discuss the budget in greater detail on March 21, and the public hearing on the budget would be held March 28.

In proposals tied to his budget, the governor is also pushing for reform to tenure, and for public employees to take on much of the cost associated with their benefits. He's also pushing for associated pension reforms.