Ho-Ho-Kus March 27, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 5 Budget presentation highlights school resource officer by Jennifer Crusco SRO and BYOD were the abbreviations of interest as the Ho-Ho-Kus Board of Education presented its $13,873,704 2013-14 budget to the Ho-Ho-Kus Council. This annual courtesy meeting was part of last week’s council work session. SRO refers to school resource officer, a member of the Ho-Ho-Kus Police Department who would be brought into the school and trained to work with the students. Superintendent Deborah Ferrara, who made the budget presentation with School Business Administrator Thomas Lambe, explained that the concept for the SRO became a salient issue after the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Ferrara explained that the officer would not just be a guard standing in one place all day, but would be trained to interact with the children who attend the district’s only building, the K-8 school on Lloyd Road. According to the budget presentation, the officer’s duties will include classroom instruction and provision of safety. The cost would be shared with the borough, with $80,000, or two-thirds of the officer’s salary, funded by the board and the balance paid by the borough. The district plans to use $73,346 from “banked cap” to fund most of the cost of the SRO. Banked cap, Lambe explained, is money that can be used to allow the district to exceed the state-mandated budget cap, and, if it is not used, can be brought forward for three years. Ho-Ho-Kus Mayor Thomas Randall asked if the state had approved the SRO, and Ferrara confirmed that state approval had been granted. Randall noted that the officer would work at the school from September through June and would return to regular duty in the summer months. The mayor said this arrangement should work out well, as the SRO would be returning to police headquarters at a time when other officers plan their vacations. After the meeting, Randall told Villadom TIMES the borough and the board are on the same page, but the borough must now coordinate for the SRO on its end. Asked if the district had a specific officer in mind for the job, a school trustee said the name of the candidate has not been released, but it would be a current officer. BYOD – short for bring your own device – is another initiative being considered by the school board. The policy, which had only been introduced as of last week, will be considered for final passage this week (March 26). Ferrara pointed out that classes will soon be required to be online for testing at the same time. She explained that, if the policy were approved, it would allow students to bring their own devices and use the school’s network. Those devices would include laptops, tablets, and readers. “We can’t give everyone a device,” Ferrara said. Councilman Kevin Shea asked if there would be a discreet way to supply devices to students who do not own their own. School officials said students who cannot afford the equipment would be provided with what is necessary. The estimated tax impact of the 2013-14 school budget would be a 2.44 percent increase to the total school tax rate and a 2.29 percent increase for the average household. That would translate to a school tax increase of $185 for the owner of a home assessed at $750,000, the borough’s average assessment. The owner of the average home would pay $8,249 in school taxes, while the owner of a home assessed at $500,000 would pay $5,499 and the owner of a home assessed at $1 million would pay $10,998. The school tax is just one of the components of the total property tax paid by borough property owners. Borough and county taxes are also part of the overall tax. The largest expenditure changes include increases of $303,350 in tuition, $69,571 in support services, $38,463 in technology, and $37,995 in capital outlay. The support services figure includes funding for the SRO, otherwise the figure would have decreased, according to the budget handout. Lambe said the district planned surplus in advance, knowing that the number of Ho-Ho-Kus students who would be attending Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale would increase. (continued on page 6)