Brick Board of Ed tonight begins revising rejected tentative budget

The Brick Township Board of Education tonight begins hashing out revisions to a tentative budget after voting down a $147.6 million proposal from interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella last Thursday.

Gialanella said the proposal increases spending by about 5 percent, or $7.1 million, over last year's spending plan. The cost to an average homeowner would be about $150.00 to $170.00 more a year, according to Gialanella.

Gialanella said they'll begin crunching numbers and discussing possible cuts at the meeting.

"Included in the budget is about $2.7 million in salary increases, about $3.2 million in employee benefit increases. The salary increases of course are by contract. The employee benefits are issues that we have to deal with, and that number is still fluid," said Gialanella. He noted that the District has time to achieve a lower number before April 28th, the scheduled public hearing on the budget.

"We also have included money in facilities departments, capital improvements. There's some needs that we have in the District in those areas especially. We also have included some money for text books, which is needed, and instructional supplies," Gialanella said. He added, "All of those things are needed and we feel they should be included in the budget."

The current tentative budget does not eliminate any positions, but Gialanella eluded to the fact that it could happen.

"We're still working on that. This budget right now is flat about adding positions, but that's one area, since salaries and benefits make up about 80 percent of our budget, if we're going to lower budget, that's one area that we will have to look at," said Gialanella.

Brick school taxes have increased slightly just one time in the past four years, according to Gialanella.