Bridgewater-Raritan Schools to Get More Than $1.3 Million in Additional State Aid

The Bridgewater-Raritan School District will get $1,331,545 in additional school aid for the 2012 fiscal year, virtually doubling the state aid increase from the 2011 fiscal year it was initially marked to receive. The increase was announced by Gov. Chris Christie’s administration on Tuesday.

The revised total aid the district is scheduled to receive is now $8,049,308, an increase of $2,663,091 from the 2010 total.

, Christie's budget called for Bridgewater-Raritan schools to receive $6,717,763 next year—an increase of $1,331,546 from the 2011 fiscal year allotment of $5,386,217.

Of the more than $6.7 million in total aid, $5,236,650 is earmarked for special education, with the remaining $663,435 to go toward security aid.

Bridgewater-Raritan Superintendent of Schools Michael Schilder declined to comment on the aid increase until he had a chance to review the numbers and get guidelines from the state.

The increase in aid came as part of an $850-million allocation plan for the 2012 fiscal year budget that was announced by the Christie administration on Tuesday. The total is made up of three different parts: an initial $250 million that was initially authorized in increased school aid, an additional $150 million for non-Abbott districts, and $450 million to Abbott districts, which is slightly more than half of the total aid.

That $450 million is being distributed amongst 31 districts. That additional funding, according to a release by the Christie administration, fully funds the Abbott districts under the School Funding Reform Act formula.

“This year, New Jersey increased state aid to school districts by $850 million over last year, restoring every dollar of the cuts we were forced to make last year and increasing aid by an additional $30 million,” Christie said in the release.

The aid comes more than a year after the administration made aid cuts to all districts, which were announced on St. Patrick’s Day 2010. In many cases, the additional aid announced on Tuesday doubled the amount that was initially designated for non-Abbott districts.