BAY HEAD — Bay Head School is considering itself lucky that its state aid has not decreased from last year, instead gaining an additional $5,000, after the New Jersey Department of Education announced this year’s numbers early this week.
“We didn’t lose any state aid. I know a lot of districts in Ocean County are losing state aid but we don’t get a lot of it,” said Superintendent of Bay Head School Steve Corso. “We are lucky we have some great support from our community organizations like our Home and School Association and the Bay Head Education Foundation, that really helps us and provides us with a lot of resources.”
Last year, the school collected $76,411 in state aid and has added over $5,000 to that number this year, a 6.91 percent increase.
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The breakdown of this number indicates that a majority of the state aid is allocated to special education at $66,675. The rest of the aid is divided between transportation, $9,449, and security, $5,569.
“It is really to maintain the normal operating costs,” said Mr. Corso. “Every year things seem to go up, salaries go up, health insurance goes up…the increase we got is really going to help offset some of that.”
“You can never have enough state aid,” said Mr. Corso. “We never feel like we get our fair share with the state withholding taxes that our taxpayers pay, that gets filtered into other towns…but we are happy not to get a decrease; every little bit helps to try and maintain our programs.”
Bay Head School currently has 132 students in grade kindergarten through eighth grade and offers a plethora of programs from sports to student council and garden club.
According to Mr. Corso, the budget will be discussed in more depth, including how the funding will affect it, at the next Board of Education meeting on March 14 at 5:30 p.m.
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