Galloway Township School District Will Appropriate Additional State Aid Into 2012-13 Budget

The Galloway Township School District will appropriate the it received from the state last week toward the 2012-13 budget and not the 2011-12 budget, District Business Administrator Vickie Tomasco said Tuesday morning.

Last week, the state announced it would give additional state aid for every district across the state. In Galloway Township, that resulted in $566,943 in additional aid, or double the aid the state previously announced.

The district has the option of using that money in this year’s budget or holding off until next year, Tomasco said.

“Our for this year,” Tomasco said. “We have no need to do anything more with the current budget.”

“We established a fair budget for 2011-12, and the additional aid is not needed,” Board of Education President Ernest Huggard said. “It’s fiscally prudent for us to use the money for the following year.

“We had some one-time monies that were given to us in the 2011-12 budget that were spent and will not be available in the next budget. This will help us offset those deficiencies.”

Huggard added it was premature to speculate on where the additional money might be used in the 2012-13 budget.

“Some guidelines have been given to us by the Department of Education,” Tomasco said. “They recommend we use the money as tax relief. When Dr. Giaquinto returns from vacation, we will meet with the Finance Committee to discuss our options.”

Tomasco added that when money is received from the state, any money that goes unused is put into a fund balance for the upcoming year.

“That helps us reduce the tax impact,” Tomasco said. “It does help us offset the tax impact.”

Galloway's school budget was passed after council mandated more than $362,000 in cuts to a proposed $53 million budget with the provision that courtesy busing for the Arthur Rann Elementary School not be cut.

Parents of children who play middle school sports were hopeful those sports could be reinstated after a one-year hiatus. were the only middle school sports played this year, after the parents of those players raised the money to fund the teams.

Tomasco and Superintendent of Schools Annette Giaquinto discussed the matter briefly after the additional aid was announced last week.

Giaquinto is on vacation this week, and a meeting with the Finance Committee will be scheduled upon her return.

The Board of Education will then consider the additional aid. It meets twice in August, on Aug. 15 and Aug. 22.