District Receives Almost $3.8 Million in State Aid

The Wayne School District is projected to receive nearly $3.8 million in state aid for the 2012-2013 school year, a 32 percent increase from last year.

More than $3.3 million of the money is for special education services and more than $350,000 is for transportation initiatives.

In related news, the township will receive more than $4.3 million in aid from the state, the same amount it received last year.

The school district received nearly $2.9 million in state aid last year.

The Board of Education will hold three special meetings in the coming weeks to publically discuss the school district’s 2012-2013 budget.

The Board will discuss and adopt a preliminary budget Monday, Feb. 27. The meeting will take place in the district headquarters at 6:30 p.m. The preliminary budget must be sent to the Passaic County Superintendent of Schools by March 1.

Two public hearings on the budget will be held in March:

Tuesday, March 6 in the Wayne Valley High School auditorium.

Tuesday, March 20 in the Wayne Hills High School auditorium.

Both meetings begin at 7 p.m. Action will not be taken at these meetings, they are merely information sessions on the budget. Members of the public will have an opportunity to ask questions.

The public will only vote on the tax levy, the portion of the budget funded by municipal taxes, if it exceeds a state-mandated 2 percent increase cap. The move comes as a result of the annual Board election . The measure remains in effect until 2015.

The Board may recoup the more than $1.7 million it lost last year when the and still be within the 2 percent cap, said Juanita Petty, the district’s business administrator. The recommendation came after voters narrowly .

District officials said the change will allow them to develop a more comprehensive, four-year long financial plan, rather than plan year to year like they have in the past.

“It puts us in a much stronger financial position where we can now project out,” Board President Donald Pavlak Jr. previously said. “Even with the 2 percent cap, how much are we getting in state aid? We don’t know. How can you put a budget together when you don’t know what one of your revenue lines is going to be? You have to base the budget on what we got last year. How do you create financial stability by doing that? You can’t.”