Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • April 4, 2012 Ridgewood School budget to add $195 to average tax bill by John Koster The Ridgewood Board of Education’s budget for 201213 will add about $195 to the property taxes on the average village house assessed at $794,000. The budget of $95,430,393 provides for a total tax levy of $86,150,328. The general fund of $90,668,150 would be sustained by a tax levy of $82,949,642, and the debt service fund of $3,693,173 provides for a tax levy of $3,200,686. Ridgewood Board of Education trustees unanimously approved the budget for submission to the voters on April 17. The budget maintains programs and provides for a two percent salary increase to teachers, along with a new $340,000 K-8 science program. The district is now entering its second year without a signed teachers’ contract, and about 55 percent of the budget covers teachers’ salaries and benefits, some of which are mandated by the state. A zero percent increase, school officials said, would require a cut of $3.1 million from the budget, and would require layoffs of three teachers at each elementary school and 18 teachers at the high school, along with major cuts in the athletic program. At the same meeting, the board accepted three volun- tary donations totaling $6,000 to maintain school sports programs. The Friends of Ridgewood High School Women’s Soccer gave the school $2,000 to be used for the lease payments for the lights at Stevens Field and Stadium Field. The Ridgewood High School Football Scholarship Committee gave the school $2,000 to be used for the lease payments on the same lights, and the Ridgewood Lacrosse Association and Ridgewood Boys Lacrosse Association donated an additional $2,000 for the lease on the lights. Pulling some strings Orchard School in Ridgewood recently hosted a performance by the Cashore Marionettes. Students in grades three through five viewed the show in the morning. In the afternoon, the fifth graders had a workshop with the puppeteers Joseph and Wilma Cashore. The presentation led to marionette making in Judy Malhotra’s art studio. John Cashore is pictured with some fifth grade students.