Superintendent Dr. James Crisfield presented the intial 2013-2014 budget to the Board of Education at the Jan. 14 meeting. A more detailed look at the budget will follow at the Jan. 28 meeting. 

The draft showed a $1,722, 949 gap that needs to be closed by the end of March. 

"A lot of work has gone into this so far to get to this point. Indeed a lot of work needs to get done to get the balance and we have two and a half month to get that way," Crisfield said. 

The initial revenues for next year total $78,605,322, up 1.37 percent from last year's $77,539,554.

This projection assumes a few variables though:

• Flat state aid, $2,382,92.
• Two percent tax increase, $73,341,773, up $1,438,074 from last year.
• $1.9 million in surplus (Capital Reserve Fund and Allowed, Excess and Emergency Surplus).
• $550,000 in subscription busing fees
• Miscellaneous revenue of $398,000

The expenditrues so far from budget managers input total $80,328,271.

Crisfield explained salaries, $51,641,652, and benefits, $12,468,104, take up almost 80 percents of the budget and are fixed.

Crisfield was questioned why the board keeps over $7.5 million in the district's surplus funds. 

"If it swings widely, the budget swings widely," he responded.

At the public forum on the Jan. 27 and the meeting on Jan. 28 a more detailed budget will be presented. 

The disrtict is accepting questions in advance for the fourm. To submit please e-mail them to webmaster@millburn.org, with “Forum Questions” in the subject line. The district said it will try to include as many as possible.