Open Letter to the
Recently, there have been newspaper articles and discussions at town meetings regarding Byram Schools’ budget. We would like to make sure that you have accurate information from us regarding these matters.
For the 2008 – 2009 school year, Byram Schools had new leadership with the appointment of a new Superintendent and new Business Administrator. Early in that school year, they determined that there were issues in the budget and took immediate action to freeze non-essential spending.
The new Superintendent
and Business Administrator, in consultation with the Board of Education determined
that the only way to properly balance the budget was to seek a cap waiver
from the county. This waiver, one of only a handful in the state,
was granted. The approved 2009 – 2010
budget includes a tax revenue increase of $802,413, an 8.99% increase from
the tax revenues collected during the prior school year of 2008-2009. The school tax rate for
The original proposed budget for 2009-2010 was not supported by some of the Byram voters and the Town Council requested a $100,000 cut in expenses. In order to meet this requirement and balance the budget for the future, Byram’s school administration and Board looked at numerous options and selected the ones that they felt would have the least impact on the children. To be fiscally responsible, the current administration has restructured teacher schedules and added new challenging programs. The libraries will be utilized and the children will continue to have access to this valued resource, including lunch time access.
We are proud to offer the children of Byram an excellent academic program at a low cost per pupil. We rely on the statistics that are published by the New Jersey Department of Education which have shown that Byram spends the third least in the state compared to similar districts.
We are confident that the
Sincerely,