The Proposed School Budget
You can look over the Board-Adopted 2003-2004 Budget online.
Here is how the NJ Dept. of Education requires the district to present the history of requested budget increases:
| year | reported budget increase |
| 2003 |
5.54
|
| 2002 |
9.12
|
| 2001 |
7.37
|
| 2000 |
6.80
|
| 1999 |
7.30
|
| 1998 |
8.73
|
| 1997 |
11.20
|
Let's look, though, at the history of General Fund requests that have gone on the ballot, how much each had increased over the previous request (not over the previous year's actual or projected budget), and whether the budget and/or second question (if any) passed:
| year | general fund | % increase | did budget pass? |
2nd Q? |
| 2003 |
$45,818,068
|
11.01
|
||
| 2002 |
$41,275,331
|
11.61
|
y
|
y
|
| 2001 |
$36,980,216
|
10.56
|
y
|
y,n
|
| 2000 |
$33,447,249
|
9.09
|
y
|
y
|
| 1999 |
$30,660,070
|
9.22
|
y
|
y
|
| 1998 |
$28,072,516
|
9.46
|
n
|
|
| 1997 |
$25,647,405
|
9.89
|
n
|
2n
|
| 1996 |
$23,340,211
|
7.95
|
n
|
n
|
| 1995 |
$21,622,216
|
6.04
|
y
|
n
|
| 1994 |
$20,390,217
|
7.05
|
n
|
|
| 1993 |
$19,047,804
|
3.18
|
y
|
|
| 1992 |
$18,460,840
|
6.40
|
y
|
y
|
| 1991 |
$17,349,789
|
15.58
|
n
|
n
|
| 1990 |
$15,011,456
|
13.91
|
n
|
n
|
| 1989 |
$13,178,124
|
17.06
|
y
|
y
|
| 1988 |
$11,257,632
|
12.17
|
y
|
|
| 1987 |
$10,036,368
|
16.92
|
y
|
|
| 1986 |
$8,583,798
|
7.60
|
y
|
|
| 1985 |
$7,977,209
|
y
|
The relationship between how much the budget increases and how much the funding request on the ballot increases is murky (i.e., not statistically significant).
The increase in total spending from year to year is not the full picture, because the number of students in the district has also been increasing from year to year.
| year | Comparative cost/pupil |
% increase comp.cost |
reported budget increase |
| 2003 |
5.54
|
||
| 2002 |
10257
|
11.95
|
9.12
|
| 2001 |
9162
|
2.92
|
7.37
|
| 2000 |
8902
|
8.75
|
6.80
|
| 1999 |
8186
|
5.03
|
7.30
|
| 1998 |
7794
|
4.67
|
8.73
|
| 1997 |
7446
|
-0.04
|
11.20
|
| 1996 |
7449
|
2.53
|
|
| 1995 |
7265
|