State Aid for Springfield Schools Doubles

With the announcement that all school districts in New Jersey will see increased state aid, Springfield will see its state aid amount double.

Springfield's School district will receive $657,718 from the state. In February, the Governor’s office announced Springfield would r. The new amount is less than half of the amount it received in 2009-2010.

Springfield was one of several school districts to have all of its state aid cut for the 2010-2011 school year. School administrators created their annual budget shortly after the state announced that all of the school’s nearly $1.5 million in state aid would be cut. In response, they cut administrative jobs and cut back on costs they deemed not essential to the classroom.

This year, Springfield had to create a budget under the restrictions of Governor Chris Christie’s two percent tax increase cap. Under the current budget, Springfield property owners are paying $67.10 more per $100,000 of assessed property than last year.

The $328,000 in state aid returned to Springfield’s budget in February was earmarked for special education, and had little impact on Springfield’s overall budget.

The education department has not told districts if the additional aid can be used in the school district budgets, which took effect on July 1.