Mat-Ab taps surplus for added capital projects

Improvements total $5.6M at district schools

BY NICOLE ANTONUCCI

Staff Writer

ABERDEEN The Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District has identified an additional $2.9 million in surplus funds to be used for capital improvement projects in the 2013-14 school year.

At the Jan. 28 meeting, members of the Board of Education approved the capital improvements, which include district-wide security upgrades and maintenance work at district schools.

The projects are in addition to the $2.7 million in improvements approved by the board in December.

This excess surplus is a result of very smart fiscal planning on the part of this administration and the actions by the board, Superintendent of Schools David Healy said in an interview.

Since April, when the school budget was approved with a surplus of $1.7 million, the district has accumulated an additional $4 million in surplus funds, which Healy said are the result of savings from the recent teachers contract settlement, a new prescription plan and increased health-care contributions by district employees, cutting lunch aides, and cutbacks in out-of-district placements for students.

We rebid our prescription plan, which is roughly $120,000 in savings a year. We settled the [teachers contract with a zero percent raise in the first year, and that is $1.5 million. We brought [back] $1.1 million in out-ofdistrict placements and counting. We were able to eliminate lunch aides from Chartwells, which was $44,000 [in savings], and use our own staff, he said.

These were all things that we had budgeted for and were able to save money on.

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Mat-Ab taps surplus for added capital projects