Hillsborough schools may ask voters to add teachers, security

HILLSBOROUGH – The school district may be putting a referendum on November’s election ballot to create a security department and add teachers, Superintendent of Schools Michael Volpe said at Monday's Board of Education meeting.

After presenting an update to the tentative 2023-24 school budget, Volpe said the referendum would ask the community to approve a total of $2.8 million. Between now and the April 24 school board meeting, board members will continue to have discussions on both proposals.

The first question − create a security department − would add one building monitor at each of the nine schools and have one person in charge of all school safety and security efforts in the district. This proposal would cost $934,636.

The second question would ask to increase school staff by adding 20 teachers for a cost $1.9 million.

This increase for school staff, Volpe said, is "to help offset some of the hurt that Hillsborough has seen over the past several years" due to what he considers "unfair funding."

According to information Volpe presented, every school district in Somerset County except Hillsborough is getting more state aid.

Initially, the school district was set to lose $913,106 in state aid.

However, because of revised state funding passed by the state Senate, Volpe said, Hillsborough will lose $310,456.

"But I still want everybody to take a look at this because when you look at Somerset County, essentially Hillsborough, we're still fighting for the scraps from the table. Every other school district in Somerset County is going up. Hillsborough is still going down," Volpe said. "I won't stop advocating over these many years that I'm going to be here until Hillsborough gets the funding that it deserves."

Volpe also said the district does not know when it will see the additional state aid and that might mean the 2023-24 final budget may still reflect the initial $910,000 cut.

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Either way, Volpe said, the budget will not see any cuts in staffing, and it is expected that taxes will go down.

"It's a fact, staff members are not being cut in order to balance this budget. That was my highest priority. I can't promise that in future years if I'm not able to advocate for fair funding in Hillsborough, we do have to cut staff or administration, but it's not happening this year. And we left no stone unturned again to make sure that that happened. That's a fact," Volpe said.

As he said taxes could be reduced with the forthcoming 2023-24 budget, Volpe added the passage of the referendum would not change that − taxes would still go down.

"When you compare apples to apples and you look at the average assessed home maintaining that same value, those people will see a tax decrease in the district," Volpe said. "Even with the passage of the separate proposals. All three of those things are facts."

Once the final budget is passed at the April 24 school board meeting, which includes a public hearing, Volpe said he intends to offer weekly updates on "Hillsborough Happenings" about the referendum questions.

"There's a lot of weeks between April 24 and November and I will make sure that this information is right there transparent and clear to see so that everybody can make good decisions for both the school district and for you and your individual circumstances," Volpe said. "I am trusting the people of Hillsborough to make good and wise decisions as to whether or not we need additional staffing and whether or not we need a security department."

email: cmakin@gannettnj.com

Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Hillsborough school referendum may include adding teachers, security