Proposed School Budget Focus of Special Board Meeting

A special meeting of the Lawrence Township Board of Education will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, March 5, beginning at 7 p.m. in the library of Lawrence High School, 2525 Princeton Pike, for the purpose of the board authorizing the proposed 2013-2014 school district budget to be sent, as required, to Mercer County’s executive county superintendent of education for review.

School District Business Administrator Tom Eldridge gave an overview of the proposed budget at the Feb. 13 board meeting. He explained that the budget – as then proposed – called for the school tax rate for 2013-2014 to increase 6 cents to $2.41 per $100 of assessed property value. The owner of a home assessed (for tax purposes) at the township average of $160,828 would, in turn, pay $3,876 in school taxes, or about $96.50 more than the current school year.

After the proposed budget is reviewed by the county’s education office, Lawrence Township Board of Education will hold its formal public Budget Hearing on Thursday, March 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the high school library.

The next regular Lawrence Township school board meeting will be held at the high school on Wednesday, March 13.

During a special board meeting held last month on Feb. 19, the board approved one item – a time and materials contract, not to exceed $80,000, for the replacement of the water heater at Lawrence High School, which has been inoperable for several weeks. The contract with Magic Touch Construction was awarded through the Middlesex Regional Educational Services Commission Cooperative Pricing System, to which the Lawrence Township school district belongs.

Tomorrow’s special school board meeting, unfortunately, will take place at the same time as the next regular meeting of the Lawrence Township Council.    

School district budget questions should be directed to Tom Eldridge at (609) 671-5420 or teldridge@ltps.org.