FLOW Area March 16, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 3 School budget to lower tax levy in two of three towns by Frank J. McMahon The tentative 2011-12 budget for the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District would, if approved at the polls next month, decrease the general fund tax levy by $43,334 over the current year and the total tax levy, inclusive of debt service, by $108,055 over the current year. The proposed budget indicates that the district’s expenditures of $49,087,707 have increased by $1,351,448 over the current year but, due to the receipt of some state aid and some savings the district was able to achieve, the total tax levy will be decreased. Frank Ceurvels, the regional high school district’s business administrator, advised that the district received $463,514 in state aid for this year’s budget as opposed to zero for last year’s budget, which will net out to $349,130 after it is offset by a state-imposed charge of $114,384 for previous capital grants the district received. Ceurvels cautioned the school board not to lose sight of the fact that the district had received about $2,100,000 in state aid in previous years. He also pointed out that over $400,000 in savings has been achieved through numerous operational changes, such as staff re-organization, copier savings, utility savings, and transportation and energy management. He also advised that the budget includes $626,356 for two previously approved capital projects that were deferred from the current year’s budget. One project included HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) upgrades at both Ramapo and Indian Hills high schools. Both schools have been awarded grants from the state’s Schools Development Authority, the Three candidates from Wyckoff have filed nominating petitions to seek election to the one open Wyckoff seat position on the Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education. The seat is available because the term of Jeff Brown, one of the current incumbent Wyckoff trustees, is expiring this year and Brown has decided not to seek reelection. Two incumbent trustees from Oakland will seek reelection to the board. They will run unopposed as no other candidate from Oakland filed a nominating petition. The three Wyckoff candidates are Isabelle Lanini of Fox Hollow Road, Kenneth A. Porro of Pace Drive, and Sabaudin Skenderi of Lincoln Avenue. Lanini graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1987 and moved to Wyckoff from Queens, New York in 1997. She has two children; one is a senior at Indian Hills High School, and the other is a freshman at Three candidates seek open seat Ramapo High School. She was employed as a software engineer at Lehman Brothers for eight years and is currently working as the Media Manager at Thyme & Place Design in Wyckoff. She has been a volunteer on the Coolidge School Parent Teacher Organization where she was the secretary for two years and first vice president for two years. She also was the PTO president at the Eisenhower Middle School for two years and was involved with the PTO websites for the Coolidge and Eisenhower schools from 2000 to 2007. She also spearheaded the Wyckoff PTOs’ move to a Web-based system for membership signup, directory creation, and electronic payments. In addition, she has served on district technology plan committees three times and has been a parent representative for the Wyckoff School District Technology Plan committees in 2004 and 2007. In 2010, she ser ved on that commit tee for the (continued on page 20) agency that oversees construction grants and provides reimbursements to the school districts, totaling about $430,000. Ceurvels said $300,000 has been designated as a deposit into capital reserve for use toward other eligible projects. He explained that the impact of the school district’s tax levy affects the three municipalities served by the district, Franklin Lakes, Oakland, and Wyckoff, in different ways because of the regional allocation or percentage of the tax levy which is prorated to each town by the state on an annual basis, and because of the recent reassessments in Franklin Lakes and Oakland. Based on the state allocation and those reassessments, the average home’s annual property tax for the regional school district in Franklin Lakes and Oakland would decrease, while the annual property tax for the regional school district in Wyckoff (continued on page 6) ����������Splash of Color ���� ��������������������� �������������������������� ����������������� �������������� ���������GREEN ��� �������������������� � ��������������� Family Hair Care ��������������������������������� �������������� �������������������� ���������������������� ����������