In 2025-26, Watchung Borough proposed a $18.4 million General Fund operating budget.
Operating revenue
Local sources$15.4 million 84%
State sources$1.6 million 9%
Fund balance / other$1.3 million 7%
Operating spending
Instruction and day-to-day operations$18.3 million 100%
Buildings, equipment, and other capital costs$52,138 <1%
These are proposed NJDOE User-Friendly Budget planning rows—not audited actuals, household tax bills, or all-funds totals.
Budget front brief
For Watchung Borough, the first budget read is a student/service family story: special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average.
Student/service familyspecial education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis. Do not overread: Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.Check Student load
Cost vs peersNJDOE’s published comparative-cost line is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; local rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts. Statewide rank: 146 of 566.Peer evidence
Who paysLocal sources supply 84% of proposed General Fund operating revenue (the recurring operating fund, not all funds), 8 pts above the Somerset County average. This is not a tax bill.Revenue families
What is newsStudent/service familyspecial education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-fam...Student load
What is backgroundNominal growthNominal operating budget moved +$4,587,999 from 2019-20 to 2025-26. The report tests that against CPI-U and UFB on-roll: real operating budget per planning student moved +$474.Trends and inflation
What to verifyReporting checkSpecial-education placement and tuition schedules. Ask whether placements reflect student need, capacity, receiving relationships, or policy.Service load
Loaded UFB rows use 2025-26 unless a section names another frame; the map routes proposal, peer, inflation, category, student, side-file, and source-row proof.
Budget essentials
For Watchung Borough, these are the UFB-backed answers a resident needs before reading the line tables: the first story route, fair comparison, current proposal, payer mix, category signal, inflation trend, student denominator, and side-file context.
source family
What is the budget story to test first?
special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.
Do student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?
Proof route: Student load.
Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
Is this district high, low, or typical against fair peers?
Comparative cost per pupil is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; local rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts. Statewide rank 146 of 566.
Peer denominator: Somerset County districts.
Use dot spacing and named peer context before treating the rank as meaningful.
A cost rank is not an efficiency, adequacy, quality, or waste finding.
Side-file and outside-operating rows can be restricted, one-time, projected, or contextual; they are not recurring General Fund spending by themselves.
Each answer names its comparison, time basis, fund scope, or denominator. The limits are as important as the figures: UFB can surface budget signals, but outside records still have to explain causes, choices, service quality, tax bills, and sustainability.
Peer position snapshot
Before the map, these strips show whether the opening cost, funding, and category signals are near the local pack or visibly apart from it. Gray dots are peer districts, the accent dot is this district, the dashed mark is the Somerset County average, and the short solid tick is the peer median.
Each strip has its own unit and scale; higher is not automatically better or worse. Use the rank as order, then use dot spacing to judge whether the rank reflects a meaningful spread or a tight cluster.
How to read this report
Budget language key
Use these terms before reading any rank, trend, category, source-row, or side-file claim. The report compares several evidence bases; the label tells which one is being used.
Term
Use it for
Do not read it as
Comparative cost
NJDOE’s published per-pupil cost line for comparing districts.
A recomputed total-budget-divided-by-enrollment number, a quality rating, or proof that spending is high or low for the same reason everywhere.
UFB on-roll
The planning-enrollment denominator inside the User-Friendly Budget.
Fall enrollment, a head-count audit, or the only denominator that can matter for per-student claims.
Real dollars
Dollar movement converted to 2025 dollars with CPI-U when the report says real or inflation-adjusted.
The same thing as latest-file proposal changes, which are nominal revised/current-to-proposed budget columns.
Operating basis
General Fund operating budget or operating revenue, depending on the measure named in the row.
All-funds revenue, audited financial-statement revenue, or a property-tax bill.
Source rows and families
Named UFB revenue and appropriation lines, plus reader-facing groups that make row-level evidence searchable.
An additive accounting schedule; rows can be nested, repeated, or outside the operating budget.
Side files
Tax-rate, balance, unusual-item, shared-service, school-resource, and selected administrative-salary context.
County peers, statewide ranks, budget-model clusters, scale groups, and category slices that test whether a number is unusual for the comparison.
Causal peers, targets, or judgments that a district should match a different district’s budget.
This key is an orientation layer for the generated budget report. It does not replace the statewide measure guide; it keeps the most common bases visible before the long evidence tables.
Budget thesis and reporting order
What is this budget story here?
Students and services. The denominator can change the per-pupil read. Special-education planning share is 11%, 6 pts below the Somerset County average. Treat ordinary nominal spending growth as background unless a peer or slice comparison, category/source row, proposal movement, CPI-adjusted trend, denominator, tax signal, or outside record makes it news.
1Compare firstRead cost relative to peers and slices.NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; local rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts. Statewide rank is 146 of 566.Check peer and slice evidence
2Find the explanation layerCategories and named rows are the first explanation layer.Largest high-level use is general current expense, >99% of operating budget; support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average.Check categories and source rows
3Use inflation as a guardrailA simple spending-went-up frame is weak.Operating scale changed +$1,015,402 in 2025 dollars from 2019-20 to 2025-26; comparative cost changed +$1,743 after inflation; UFB planning on-roll changed +26.Check inflation and denominator evidence
4Report beyond UFBDo student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?Check tuition, placement, preschool, transportation, service-plan, and receiving/sending records before explaining the per-student effect.Check Student load
What the numbers support now
Start here before writing from a single cost rank.
Students and servicesThe denominator can change the per-pupil read. Special-education planning share is 11%, 6 pts below the Somerset County average.Fall enrollment, UFB planning enrollment, placements, and service-load rows should travel with any per-student cost claim.Check costs and students
Fair comparisonRead cost relative to peers and slices. NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; local rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts. Statewide rank is 146 of 566.The cost number becomes useful only after the report tests local peers, statewide rows, and overlapping budget-model slices.Check peer and slice evidence
Who paysFunding model changes the meaning of the same cost figure. Local sources supply 84% of operating revenue, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.A locally funded, state-funded, federally supported, or balance-supported budget can have the same per-pupil cost for different reasons.Check revenue families
Categories and source rowsCategories and named rows are the first explanation layer. Largest high-level use is general current expense, >99% of operating budget; support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average.This is where the report moves from one cost number to the spending categories and source rows that are actually distinctive.Check categories and source rows
What changes the interpretation
Use these rows to keep inflation, denominator, and service-load context attached to the claim.
Not the story by itselfA simple spending-went-up frame is weak. Operating scale changed +$1,015,402 in 2025 dollars from 2019-20 to 2025-26; comparative cost changed +$1,743 after inflation; UFB planning on-roll changed +26.Use the inflation and denominator evidence as background before claiming a district-specific budget story.Check inflation and denominator evidence
Students and servicesThe denominator can change the per-pupil read. Special-education planning share is 11%, 6 pts below the Somerset County average.Fall enrollment, UFB planning enrollment, placements, and service-load rows should travel with any per-student cost claim.Check costs and students
What still needs reporting
UFB identifies the question; these checks name what has to be verified outside the source file.
Student/service familyDo student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read? Check tuition, placement, preschool, transportation, service-plan, and receiving/sending records before explaining the per-student effect.Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.Check Student load
Spending mixWhich operating-use category makes the district unlike its peers? Identify the program, contract, transfer recipient, school allocation, or staffing pattern behind the category before attaching a policy explanation.High-level use shares share one denominator, but lower-level UFB rows can overlap and should not be summed.Check Spending categories
Reserves and fund balanceAre balance, reserve, or carryover rows part of this budget year’s story? Check audited fund balance, reserve purpose, transfer approvals, and whether the budgeted source is recurring or one-time.Fund-balance and reserve rows are planned source or projected-balance context, not audited cash or recurring revenue.Check Reserves
This thesis is generated from published UFB rows, CPI-adjusted history where available, local/state comparison sets, and the report’s strongest signal scan. It is a reporting order, not a causal model or a replacement for board records, contracts, tax files, staffing context, and audited financials.
Budget reporting notebook
This notebook turns the ranked UFB leads into a document trail: the signal in this report, the outside records to pull, the interviews or checks to run, and the unsupported reading to block before writing from the numbers.
Lead
UFB signal
Records to pull
Interviews / checks
Unsupported read to block
1Student/service familyDo student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?Student load
source familyspecial education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.
Budget book, board packet, and account detail behind the linked proof section.
Audit note or outside schedule if the row is restricted or one-time.
Relevant contract, grant, tax, or staffing document.
Ask which local decision, outside requirement, or accounting rule produced the signal.
Check the linked proof section against external records before writing causality.
Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
2Spending mixWhich operating-use category makes the district unlike its peers?Spending categories
<1%Capital outlay share is <1%, 3 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19.
Appropriation account detail behind the large category.
Program, contract, transfer, or staffing schedules tied to the row.
Budget amendments and board agenda items around the change.
Ask which program, contract, staffing pattern, or pass-through sits inside the category.
Check whether the category is recurring, restricted, or an accounting structure.
High-level use shares share one denominator, but lower-level UFB rows can overlap and should not be summed.
3Reserves and fund balanceAre balance, reserve, or carryover rows part of this budget year’s story?Reserves
$1.2 millionFund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.
Audit fund-balance note and reserve schedules.
Budgeted fund-balance or reserve-withdrawal resolutions.
Prior-year transfer approvals and closeout context.
Ask whether the source is planned, audited, recurring, or a one-time budget bridge.
Check legal purpose and transfer authority before treating reserves as available cash.
Fund-balance and reserve rows are planned source or projected-balance context, not audited cash or recurring revenue.
4Funding modelWho pays for the operating budget, and is that funding mix typical for local peers?Revenue families
84%The largest operating revenue source is local sources, 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.
State-aid notices and aid-calculation summary.
Budget-book revenue schedule and levy-cap worksheet.
Board minutes or resolutions for fund-balance and reserve use.
Ask what share is formula aid, levy, reserve use, or one-time support.
Compare the explanation with state notices and board approvals.
Operating revenue is General Fund operating revenue, not all-funds revenue or a tax-bill calculation.
5Line movementWhich named source row moved most after inflation across loaded UFB years?Line history
+$1,128,369Largest inflation-adjusted named-line movement: Total Debt Service Funds, +$1,128,369 from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Account detail for the moving row in first and latest loaded years.
Budget amendments, grant notices, contracts, or formula memos behind the shift.
Board packet sections explaining the row in both years.
Ask which formula, grant, transfer, contract, staffing, or accounting event moved the row.
Check both endpoints and any intervening spike before writing a trend explanation.
The selected row is a reporting lead, not a complete explanation of the operating budget change.
6Pupil-cost lineWhich NJDOE standardized per-pupil row is furthest from the local peer average?Pupil-cost rows
$3,954Support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average.
Pupil-cost support schedule behind the standardized row.
Staffing roster, benefits rates, facilities, or program budget pages.
Contracts or purchased-service detail for the category.
Ask which staffing, benefits, facilities, or program records feed the standardized row.
Check whether the line is a component, subtotal, or comparison-only measure.
Several pupil-cost rows are components of broader totals, not an additive bridge.
The records and checks are reporting targets, not files contained in the UFB release. They are generated from the same signal ranking as the lead sheet so the report stays anchored in source evidence while making the next journalism step explicit.
Budget machine
Why this budget behaves this way
The budget story for Watchung Borough starts with cost engine; cost position; who pays. This panel extracts the basic resident-facing read from UFB before the report opens the long proof sections.
Relative costCost position
Claim
Published comparative cost is $167 below the Somerset County average.
Evidence
$24,712; -$167 versus Somerset County average; rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts. Statewide, it is $1,121 above the NJ average; rank 146 of 566.
Why it matters
Start here so a budget story is about position against a fair comparison, not just the fact that spending rose.
Do not write
Comparative cost is NJDOE’s published line. It is not a quality rating, efficiency score, or tax-bill estimate.
Local sources are the largest operating-revenue source, at 84% of proposed General Fund operating revenue.
Evidence
$15.4 million; 84% of operating budget; 8 pts above the Somerset County average. After inflation, local sources moved +$338,896 from 2019-20 to 2025-26. State sources are 9% and moved +$779,170 after inflation over the same span. Tax levy per UFB on-roll is $543 below the Somerset County average.
Why it matters
This names the revenue machine behind the cost comparison: a local-tax district, state-aid district, grant-heavy district, and fund-balance-supported district have different budget stories.
Do not write
Revenue mix is not an all-funds view, not a household tax bill, and not proof of what the district buys.
The strongest recurring-use signals are special education and student supports, instruction programs.
Evidence
Special education and student supports: 21% of operating-budget scale, +$930,117 after inflation, +6 pts versus Somerset County average, largest row: Total Special Education-Instruction. Instruction programs: 33% of operating-budget scale, +$69,985 after inflation, +3 pts versus Somerset County average, largest row: Total Regular Programs-Instruction.
Why it matters
This turns the broad spending total into named categories a resident can inspect: current scale, movement after inflation, and peer gap all matter.
Do not write
These families can be nested or contextual. They do not prove cuts, waste, staffing quality, or legal service obligations.
The live-year read depends on proposal, limited support, outside-operating rows.
Evidence
Latest proposal moves operating budget +$1,103,190 (6%) from revised/current to proposed. Top named proposal row: Total General Current Expense at +$1,103,190. Fund-balance, reserve, and carryover source rows total $1.2 million, 7% of operating-budget scale; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.
Why it matters
This keeps current proposal movement, one-time support, and outside-operating rows separate from the long-run CPI-adjusted trend.
Do not write
Do not turn this into audited actual spending, a cut list, recurring revenue, or proof of fiscal distress without local records.
The machine read uses UFB summary, revenue, appropriation, pupil-cost, budget-enrollment, reserve, and side-file rows through 2025-26. Money trends use 2025 CPI-U dollars where labeled; proposal rows are nominal revised/current-to-proposed movement.
Budget squeeze explainer
What is actually putting pressure on the budget?
For Watchung Borough, this panel connects the revenue model, recurring cost families, student denominator, current proposal, and local record checks before the report moves into the longer evidence sections.
local sources supply 84% of proposed operating revenue, 8 pts above the Somerset County average; state sources supply 9%; recurring local, state, and federal source summaries moved +$1,118,066 after inflation while operating scale moved +$1,015,402.
This is the first test for a cap-sensitive district: is the recurring operating revenue model keeping pace after inflation, and how dependent is the district on local sources?
Pull the levy-cap worksheet, state-aid notice, cap-bank/waiver rows, tax-base records, and budget presentation before writing a cap-exhaustion or underfunding claim.
Special education and student supports: 21% of operating-budget scale, +$930,117 after inflation, +6 pts versus Somerset County average, largest row: Total Special Education-Instruction; Instruction programs: 33% of operating-budget scale, +$69,985 after inflation, +3 pts versus Somerset County average, largest row: Total Regular Programs-Instruction; Employee benefits: 21% of operating-budget scale, +$536,102 after inflation, +3 pts versus Somerset County average, largest row: Total Personal Services-Employee Benefits.
This turns the broad spending total into the first recurring categories to inspect. The story may be current scale, peer difference, real movement, or all three.
Pull staffing rosters, placement/tuition schedules, contracts, program schedules, and budget-book narratives before translating category rows into classroom, staffing, or service-impact claims.
real operating budget per UFB planning student moved +$474 from 2019-20 to 2025-26; UFB planning on-roll moved +26; special-education on-roll is 73 (11% of UFB on-roll).
This keeps the per-student story from becoming only a dollar story: the denominator, placements, and service-load rows can change the read.
Pull fall enrollment, special-education placement records, IEP/service-obligation context, tuition contracts, transportation records, and staffing schedules before explaining why the load changed.
latest proposal moves operating budget +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed; fund-balance, reserve, and carryover source rows total $1.2 million, 7% of operating-budget scale; largest row is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.
This separates the current budget vote and one-time support rows from the multi-year inflation-adjusted trend.
Pull the adopted budget book, audit, appropriation-of-surplus resolution, reserve schedules, and budget adoption minutes before calling this recurring revenue, audited cash stress, or a complete cut list.
Money movement uses 2025 CPI-U dollars where the row says after inflation. This is a reporting synthesis, not a deficit finding, tax-bill estimate, quality rating, or claim that a listed category caused a cut.
Budget evidence board
The four checks before writing the budget story
For Watchung Borough, the useful budget read is a sequence: compare the published cost position, explain the category families, check inflation and denominator movement, then verify whether the live proposal continues or complicates that pattern.
Compare
$24,712; $167 below the Somerset County average.
Frame
District
Average
Gap
Rank
Somerset County districtsclosest local comparison frame
$24,712
$24,879
-$167
9 of 18
All NJ UFB districtsstatewide baseline before narrowing the frame
$24,712
$23,591
+$1,121
146 of 566
Mostly locally fundedsame funding model, so revenue dependence is not hidden by one rank
The board uses the latest UFB year for comparison rows, 2025 CPI-U dollars where it says real or after inflation, proposed operating budget as the category scale denominator, and nominal revised/current-to-proposed dollars for proposal rows. Source-family rows are contextual and can be nested, so this is a reporting map rather than an additive accounting schedule.
Budget operating model
The budget model in six reads
For Watchung Borough, this is the compact operating model behind the long UFB report: scale, payers, uses, real movement, live proposal movement, and checks that can change the interpretation.
ScaleHow big is the operating budget?
$18.4 million
$18.4 million proposed General Fund operating budget; $27,251 per UFB planning student; $20,101 below the Somerset County average on operating budget per UFB planning student.
Use this as the recurring operating scale. It is not all funds, audited actual spending, or a household tax bill.
Main operating sources: local sources 84% ($15.4 million); state sources 9% ($1.6 million); fund balance / other sources 7% ($1.3 million); 8 pts above the Somerset County average.
Read this as General Fund operating revenue mix. Grants, debt service, capital funds, and tax-rate files sit on different bases.
Largest visible source families by operating-budget scale: Instruction programs 33%; Special education and student supports 21%; Employee benefits 21%. Largest visible row: Total Regular Programs-Instruction.
Families are source-row groups, not an additive accounting schedule. Use them to decide which category proof section to open first.
real operating budget per UFB planning student moved +$474 from $26,777 to $27,251; operating-budget numerator moved +$1.0 million after CPI-U while UFB on-roll moved +26; top family movement: General current expense +$2.1 million after inflation.
This is the guardrail against the generic nominal-spending-growth story: separate inflation, budget numerator, and UFB planning denominator before writing.
operating budget proposal moved +$1.1 million (6%) from revised/current to proposed; largest visible increase: Total General Current Expense +$1.1 million.
These are nominal latest-file proposal rows. They should be read beside, not merged into, the CPI-adjusted history.
fund-balance, reserve, and carryover source rows total $1.2 million, 7% of operating scale; special-education on-roll is 6 pts below the Somerset County average; rank 18 of 19; tax levy per UFB planning student is $543 below the Somerset County average; rank 7 of 18.
Use these as follow-up checks before writing deficit, tax-bill, service-cut, adequacy, or efficiency claims from UFB alone.
The model uses 2025-26 UFB rows for the current read, 2025 CPI-U dollars where it says real or after inflation, proposed General Fund operating budget as the common scale where labeled, and Somerset County average for local peer comparisons where enough rows exist.
Budget answer sheet
This answer sheet gives the basic budget read for Watchung Borough before the detailed report opens. It turns the current proposal, peer frame, funding model, spending uses, student/service load, inflation, and side files into direct questions a resident can answer from UFB evidence.
Question
Answer from UFB
How to read it
Proof
+$1.1Mproposal changeWhat changed in the current proposal?Live proposal
The live proposal changes the operating budget +$1,103,190 (6%) versus the revised/current column.
This is the current budget-year decision point. Long-run charts later in the report convert history to real dollars, but this row is the latest file’s nominal proposal change.
$24,712comparative costIs the district high, low, or typical against a fair benchmark?Fair comparison
NJDOE comparative cost is $167 below the Somerset County average.
The ordinary per-pupil-spending line is only the starting point. The fair question is whether the district’s cost position fits its funding model, scale, placements, and outside-operating rows.
84%largest sourceWho pays for the operating budget?Who pays
Local sources supplied the largest operating-revenue share, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.
Revenue mix is the policy frame behind the cost comparison: a locally funded district, a state-aid district, and a district using fund balance can show the same cost number for different reasons.
-11 ptsvs avgWhere does the operating budget go?What money buys
Transfers and tuition is the strongest generated spending/category clue: 11 pts below the Somerset County average, -$161,456 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26, latest proposal movement -$174,234.
This keeps the report out of the generic spending-went-up narrative. The category and named-line sections show which uses are actually large, unusual, or moving.
11%UFB on-rollWhat student or service-load context changes the read?Students and services
special-education on-roll is 73 (11% of UFB on-roll).
Per-pupil comparisons move when the denominator or service load changes. This report keeps fall enrollment, UFB planning enrollment, placements, and student-need rows next to the cost evidence.
+$1,015,402real operating changeWhat changed across loaded UFB years after inflation?What changed after inflation
After inflation, operating-budget scale changed +$1,015,402 from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
This is the long-run context. It is deliberately separate from the latest proposal-column changes so ordinary nominal growth does not masquerade as the budget story.
$1.2 millionfund/reserve sourcesWhat else can change the budget story?Reserves and side files
Fund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million.
These rows can explain a budget year without being recurring operating spending. The report keeps fund balance, reserves, recap balances, unusual explanations, shared services, salary rows, and school-resource statements outside additive totals.
The answer sheet is generated from published UFB rows and local/state comparison sets. It is an evidence map, not a causal model; dollar trend claims are inflation-adjusted only where the text says so, and proposal rows are nominal latest-file movement.
Budget explanation brief
What explains this budget first
Local taxes and local sources is the largest current family outside the broad current-expense total, at 87% of operating-budget scale. Local taxes and local sources has the widest local peer gap, +13 pts against the Somerset County average. Local taxes and local sources moved the most after inflation, +$1,084,484 across loaded UFB years.
Category, trend, and comparison scan
These are the source-row families where current scale, peer position, inflation-adjusted movement, or the latest proposal move most change the story.
Local taxes and local sourceslarge now / peer gap / real movementTotal Tax Levy (Revenue line 100/114, $15,190,345)
Current scale
87%$15,976,115
Peer gap
+13 ptspeer avg 74%
Real movement
+$1,084,484+1 pt
Live proposal
+$904,348+5 pts of operating scale
Instruction programslarge now / peer gap / real movementTotal Regular Programs-Instruction (Appropriation line 3200, $5,096,201)
Current scale
33%$6,099,492
Peer gap
+3 ptspeer avg 30%
Real movement
+$69,985-2 pts
Live proposal
+$581,652+3 pts of operating scale
Special education and student supportslarge now / peer gap / real movementTotal Special Education-Instruction (Appropriation line 10300, $2,603,332)
Current scale
21%$3,887,768
Peer gap
+6 ptspeer avg 15%
Real movement
+$930,117+4 pts
Live proposal
+$36,6340 pts of operating scale
State aidlarge now / peer gap / real movementCategorical Special Education Aid (Revenue line 440, $692,472)
Current scale
9%$1,586,213
Peer gap
-12 ptspeer avg 21%
Real movement
+$779,170+4 pts
Live proposal
-$15,7010 pts of operating scale
Employee benefitslarge now / peer gap / real movementTotal Personal Services-Employee Benefits (Appropriation line 71260, $3,858,382)
Current scale
21%$3,858,382
Peer gap
+3 ptspeer avg 18%
Real movement
+$536,102+2 pts
Live proposal
+$401,865+2 pts of operating scale
Bars are scaled separately within each scan column; use the printed values for exact cross-column comparisons.
Signal
Question
Evidence
Use and limit
Largest current familyLocal taxes and local sources
How much of the budget story is local levy, tuition, fees, or miscellaneous local revenue?
$15,976,115 in latest source-row dollars; 87% of proposed operating-budget scale.Largest visible row: Total Tax Levy (Revenue line 100/114, $15,190,345).
Start here for the part of the budget that has the most current scale before reading smaller line movers.Large does not mean unusual, efficient, inefficient, or recurring; the peer gap and source-row basis still have to be checked.CategoriesSource rows
Widest local peer gapLocal taxes and local sources
How much of the budget story is local levy, tuition, fees, or miscellaneous local revenue?
87% locally versus 74% for the Somerset County average; gap +13 pts.The family sits above the local peer frame on the same operating-budget-equivalent denominator.
Use this as the clearest category clue that the district differs from nearby districts.A peer gap is not a cause, a quality rating, or proof of waste; it needs program, enrollment, tax, labor, and board-document context.Peer evidenceComparisonsCategories
Largest real movementLocal taxes and local sources
How much of the budget story is local levy, tuition, fees, or miscellaneous local revenue?
+$1,084,484 from 2019-20 to 2025-26 after CPI-U adjustment to 2025 dollars.Operating-equivalent share changed +1 pt over the same loaded years.
Use this for the trend question, because it tests whether a category changed after inflation instead of repeating that nominal spending rises.This is not the latest proposal movement and can reflect row availability, program shifts, or denominator changes across loaded UFB years.TrendsCategoriesSource rows
Largest current proposal moveLocal taxes and local sources
How much of the budget story is local levy, tuition, fees, or miscellaneous local revenue?
+$904,348 from revised/current to proposed in the latest UFB file.That equals +5 pts of proposed operating-budget scale.Largest named proposal row: Total Tax Levy (+$816,202 current-to-proposed).
Use this for what the current budget file says is changing now, separate from the multi-year inflation-adjusted trend.Proposal movement is nominal and latest-file only; it is not audited actual spending and should not be added across nested rows.ProposalSource rows
This brief uses generated UFB source-row families as a reporting triage layer. Latest scale and peer gaps use proposed operating budget as a common denominator; real movement is converted to 2025 dollars with CPI-U; proposal movement is nominal revised/current-to-proposed movement in the latest UFB file. Families are contextual and can be nested, so this is not an additive budget schedule.
Budget story package
For Watchung Borough, start with this budget question: Do student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read? The package keeps the UFB-supported claim, fair comparison, inflation/category/proposal checks, next reporting move, and blocked overread on the same row.
Package
What UFB shows
Compare / change
Report / block
Lead to testStudent/service familysource family
special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.Check: Student load
Compare againstUse the Somerset County average and the linked proof section as the first comparison, then verify the operational explanation outside UFB.What changes the readReaders can keep student-flow, tuition, preschool, and service-load rows attached to per-student cost claims.
Report nextSpecial-education placement and tuition schedules. Ask whether placements reflect student need, capacity, receiving relationships, or policy.Do not writeService-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
Fair comparisonCost position$24,712
NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712 per pupil, rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts, $167 below the Somerset County average.Check: Peer evidence
Compare againstStart with Somerset County districts and the Somerset County average; then test statewide, model, scale, student-service, and outside-operating frames before treating the rank as the story.What changes the readUse this to decide whether local peers, statewide slices, scale, funding model, service load, or source-row context is the fair comparison before quoting a rank.
Report nextAdopted budget book and UFB narrative. Ask the business administrator which obligations make the peer set fair or unfair.Do not writeNJDOE comparative cost is the publisher’s metric; this is a comparison lead, not a judgment or a recomputed cost.
Inflation testTrend and denominator2025 dollars
real operating budget per UFB planning student changed +$474 from 2019-20 to 2025-26; UFB planning enrollment changed +26; NJDOE comparative cost changed +$1,743 after inflation.Check: Inflation trends
Compare againstCompare this with the latest-year Somerset County average, the report map, and the trend section before calling growth the story.What changes the readThis separates nominal spending growth from real per-student movement, denominator change, and the latest proposal columns.
Report nextFirst and latest budget books and budget presentations. Ask which decisions changed between the first and latest loaded UFB years.Do not writeReal-dollar movement is long-run context; it is separate from the latest proposal-column decision.
Category explanationLocal taxes and local sources87%
Local taxes and local sources: $15,976,115 latest source-row dollars, 87% of operating-budget scale; +13 pts versus the Somerset County average; +$1,084,484 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +$904,348 latest proposal movement; largest visible row: Total Tax Levy.Check: Category evidence
Compare againstCompare the same source-family share with the Somerset County average, then check category, peer, trend, proposal, and source-row sections.What changes the readThis is the category/slice evidence that can make a budget story specific; it is not a second total to add to the operating budget.
Report nextAppropriation account detail behind the large category. Ask which program, contract, staffing pattern, or pass-through sits inside the category.Do not writeBudget families can be nested, repeated, or contextual, so they are reporting leads rather than an additive budget schedule.
Live proposalTotal General Current Expense+$1,103,190
Total General Current Expense changes +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed; +6 pts of operating-budget scale; same-row local peer average movement is +5 pts across 19 peers.Check: Proposal changes
Compare againstCompare the proposal package with the category map and trend bridge before calling it a pivot or continuation.What changes the readThis isolates the live budget decision from the broader real-dollar trend and from nested source-row totals.
Report nextAccount detail for the moving row in first and latest loaded years. Ask which formula, grant, transfer, contract, staffing, or accounting event moved the row.Do not writeProposal rows are nominal latest-file movement, not audited actual spending or a multi-year inflation-adjusted trend.
Second signalReserves and fund balance$1.2 million
Fund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.Check: Reserves
Compare againstCompare balance, reserve, and carryover source rows with the operating budget scale; then check audited balances, restrictions, and recurrence.What changes the readCarry this beside the lead so per-pupil, tax, reserve, side-file, or outside-operating context is not left behind.
Report nextAudit fund-balance note and reserve schedules. Ask whether the source is planned, audited, recurring, or a one-time budget bridge.Do not writeFund-balance and reserve rows are planned source or projected-balance context, not audited cash or recurring revenue.
Story packages are generated from ranked UFB signals, 2025-dollar inflation checks, local peer and source-family comparisons, latest proposal rows, and side-file cues. They are an assignment path, not a causal finding, quality rating, or additive accounting schedule.
Budget mechanism read
This panel turns the budget evidence for Watchung Borough into mechanisms: relative cost; who pays; category or slice are the first lanes to test before a reader writes from totals, ranks, or nominal growth.
Mechanism
District read
Proof already here
Report next
Block this overread
BaselineRelative cost
Published comparative cost is $167 below the Somerset County average; rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts.
$24,712; -$167 versus Somerset County average. Peer evidence
Test whether funding model, service load, category rows, or side files make the cost position explainable.
A cost rank is not an efficiency, adequacy, quality, or taxpayer-impact finding.
In playWho pays
Local sources supply 84% of proposed General Fund operating revenue; 8 pts above the Somerset County average. Tax levy per UFB on-roll is $543 below the Somerset County average.
Operating revenue source share from UFB summary rows. Tax: $22,538; rank 7 of 18. Revenue families
Ask whether the cost story is also a local-revenue, state-aid, grant, tax-base, or fund-balance story.
Funding mix is not a tax bill, adequacy judgment, or proof of what the district buys.
In playCategory or slice
special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.
Budget-family scan combines latest operating-equivalent scale, local peer gap, CPI-adjusted movement, proposal movement, and largest source-row clues. Student load
Report the named row or family before saying total spending is the story.
Budget families and source rows can be nested or contextual, so this is not an additive schedule or causal model.
ContextInflation and denominator
After CPI-U adjustment, operating budget per UFB on-roll moved +$474 from 2019-20 to 2025-26; UFB on-roll moved +26.
$26,777 to $27,251 in 2025 dollars per UFB on-roll. Inflation trends
Separate real per-student movement from nominal budget growth and from the latest proposal column.
This is not a current-year cut list, audited actual spending, or proof that services changed.
In playStudents and services
special-education planning rows are 73 (11% of UFB on-roll); received-from-other-district rows are 28 (4% of UFB on-roll); support services per pupil is $443 below the Somerset County average.
special-education planning rows: 73; received-from-other-district rows: 28; Support services per pupil: rank 13 of 18. Students and costs
Ask whether per-pupil differences are a denominator, placement, service-load, or cost-row story.
Planning rows are not fall enrollment, service quality, compliance evidence, or student-need proof by themselves.
Live decisionProposal timing
operating budget moves +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed; 6% latest-file change; top named proposal row is Total General Current Expense.
+$1.1M; +$1,103,190 in nominal latest-file dollars. Proposal changes
Ask whether the current proposal continues, offsets, or departs from the longer CPI-adjusted trend.
Proposal-column movement is not audited actual spending, long-run inflation movement, or a confirmed cut/addition list.
In playOne-time support
fund-balance, reserve, and carryover source rows total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million; projected close-year recap balances total $1.6 million.
Ask which support is recurring, restricted, already committed, or a one-year budget bridge.
Balance and reserve rows are planned-source or projected-balance context, not audited cash or structural-deficit proof.
CheckOutside operating and side files
all-funds net spending is $19.7 million, $1.3 million above the operating budget; shared-service file lists 8 arrangements; largest outside-operating row: debt service funds at $1.1 million.
largest outside-operating row: debt service funds at $1.1 million; selected administrative salary side file lists 7 rows. Budget anatomy
Ask whether grants, debt, capital, preschool, unusual items, shared services, or salary side files change the operating story.
Outside-operating and side-file rows are context; they are not recurring General Fund operating spending or audited savings.
Mechanisms are generated from UFB summary, revenue, appropriation, pupil-cost, budget-enrollment, tax, reserve, and side-file rows. Money trends use 2025 CPI-U dollars where labeled; proposal rows remain nominal latest-file movement.
Cost-position clues
NJDOE comparative cost puts this district near the Somerset County average. These clues name the concrete UFB measures, funding and tax signals, named rows, current-proposal movement, denominator checks, and budget-year context that can explain or complicate that position before the report moves into full evidence.
Clue
Evidence
How to read it
Proof
Headline metricNJDOE comparative cost
$24,712; -$167 vs Somerset County average; rank 9 of 18
This is the published cost-position metric. The rows below are the visible UFB clues to test before treating the rank as a story by itself.
Scale checkOperating budget per UFB on-roll student
$27,251; -$20,101 vs Somerset County average; rank 12 of 19
This recomputed operating-budget scale check uses UFB on-roll as the denominator; it can confirm or complicate NJDOE’s published comparative-cost line.
operating budget +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed; 6% latest-file change; largest named proposal move: General current expense at +$1,103,190
The proposal clue is the live nominal budget-year decision. It belongs beside the cost position, but it is separate from CPI-adjusted history and audited actual spending.
9%; -11 pts vs Somerset County average; rank 10 of 18
Funding mix explains who carries the operating budget. It can make the same cost position mean different things, but it does not show what the district buys.
84%; +8 pts vs Somerset County average; rank 12 of 19
Funding mix explains who carries the operating budget. It can make the same cost position mean different things, but it does not show what the district buys.
The clues use Somerset County districts with usable latest-year UFB rows unless noted. Proposal rows are nominal revised/current-to-proposed movement; trend rows use 2025 dollars where labeled. These are reporting leads, not a causal model and not a rating of spending quality.
Cost-position judgment
For Watchung Borough, the cost-position read is near the Somerset County average. This ledger decides whether the visible UFB signals line up with that read, complicate it, or leave the explanation outside the budget files.
Judgment
Evidence
Reader take
Next check
Cost story
Comparative cost per pupil: $24,712 (-$167 vs Somerset County average; rank 9 of 18)
The published cost line is not the whole story: a near-average cost position can still carry a funding, tax, category, proposal, or side-file story.
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student: $27,251 (-$20,101 vs Somerset County average; rank 12 of 19); State operating revenue share: 9% (-11 pts vs Somerset County average; rank 10 of 18); Support services per pupil: $3,954 (-$443 vs Somerset County average; rank 13 of 18).
These are the strongest peer-relative clues even though the headline cost rank is not itself a sharp high/low story.
Total Tax Levy: 83% of operating scale; +16 pts vs Somerset County average; rank 8 of 19.
A named UFB row can make the story concrete. It still may be nested, contextual, or outside the recurring operating basis, so it needs the source-row proof section.
special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.
This is the strongest generated source-family route. Use it to decide what to report next, not as an accounting total or causal model.
Budget book, board packet, and account detail behind the linked proof section. Ask which local decision, outside requirement, or accounting rule produced the signal.
UFB can rank and compare the signal, but it still does not prove cause, adequacy, intent, quality, or taxpayer impact. Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
The ledger uses Somerset County districts with usable latest-year UFB rows unless the row names another frame. It is a reporting synthesis, not an efficiency rating, adequacy claim, or causal model.
Budget report section
Start with the story
What is the short version, what can UFB prove, which signals deserve the first read, and which simple reads need a second signal?
What explains this budget
Student/service family. Special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.
AskDo student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?Do not overreadService-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.Check: Student load
<1%Spending mixCapital outlay share is <1%, 3 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19.AskWhich operating-use category makes the district unlike its peers?Do not overreadHigh-level use shares share one denominator, but lower-level UFB rows can overlap and should not be summed.Check: Spending categories
$1.2 millionReserves and fund balanceFund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.AskAre balance, reserve, or carryover rows part of this budget year’s story?Do not overreadFund-balance and reserve rows are planned source or projected-balance context, not audited cash or recurring revenue.Check: Reserves
84%Funding modelThe largest operating revenue source is local sources, 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.AskWho pays for the operating budget, and is that funding mix typical for local peers?Do not overreadOperating revenue is General Fund operating revenue, not all-funds revenue or a tax-bill calculation.Check: Revenue families
+$1,128,369Line movementLargest inflation-adjusted named-line movement: Total Debt Service Funds, +$1,128,369 from 2019-20 to 2025-26.AskWhich named source row moved most after inflation across loaded UFB years?Do not overreadThe selected row is a reporting lead, not a complete explanation of the operating budget change.Check: Line history
$3,954Pupil-cost lineSupport services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average.AskWhich NJDOE standardized per-pupil row is furthest from the local peer average?Do not overreadSeveral pupil-cost rows are components of broader totals, not an additive bridge.Check: Pupil-cost rows
These are generated reporting leads ranked from the latest UFB row scans, county comparisons, planning-enrollment rows, and real-dollar trend checks. The question and counter-reading keep each lead from becoming a causal claim before the full report evidence is checked.
Budget reading memo
The useful budget read for Watchung Borough is not a single spending-up sentence or a lone rank. Test this question first: Do student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read? special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Do not stop at the simple read
NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; local rank 9 of 18. After inflation, operating budget per UFB planning student changed +$474 from 2019-20 to 2025-26; UFB planning enrollment changed +26. The latest UFB proposal column changes the operating budget +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed. Those facts matter, but they should travel with the student/service family question instead of becoming the whole story.
The largest operating revenue source is local sources, 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.
Readers can separate a budget that is locally funded, state-aid driven, federally supported, or temporarily balanced by reserves before judging the same cost number.
Operating revenue is General Fund operating revenue, not all-funds revenue or a tax-bill calculation.
This memo is generated from ranked UFB signals, local peer context, loaded-year inflation checks, proposal columns, and side-file evidence. It is an editorial route through the evidence, not a causal finding; Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
Question-to-reporting path
The first resident question for Watchung Borough is Do student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read? This path keeps the strongest UFB clues beside the first fair comparison, the records to pull, and the shortcut to block before writing.
Reader question
UFB clue
First comparison
Reporting move
Student/service familyDo student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?
special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.Student-flow, tuition, preschool, placement, and service-load rows tied to the UFB planning denominator.
Use the Somerset County average and the linked proof section as the first comparison, then verify the operational explanation outside UFB.Check: Student load
Pull or ask
Budget book, board packet, and account detail behind the linked proof section.
Audit note or outside schedule if the row is restricted or one-time.
Ask which local decision, outside requirement, or accounting rule produced the signal.
Do not write yetService-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
Spending mixWhich operating-use category makes the district unlike its peers?
Capital outlay share is <1%, 3 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19.High-level General Fund appropriation rows and operating-budget-share peer comparisons.
Compare operating-use shares and named source rows with the Somerset County average; lower-level rows can be nested, repeated, or outside the operating fund.Check: Spending categories
Pull or ask
Appropriation account detail behind the large category.
Program, contract, transfer, or staffing schedules tied to the row.
Ask which program, contract, staffing pattern, or pass-through sits inside the category.
Do not write yetHigh-level use shares share one denominator, but lower-level UFB rows can overlap and should not be summed.
Reserves and fund balanceAre balance, reserve, or carryover rows part of this budget year’s story?
Fund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.UFB fund-balance, reserve, carryover, and projected-balance rows plus local peer scale.
Compare balance, reserve, and carryover source rows with the operating budget scale; then check audited balances, restrictions, and recurrence.Check: Reserves
Pull or ask
Audit fund-balance note and reserve schedules.
Budgeted fund-balance or reserve-withdrawal resolutions.
Ask whether the source is planned, audited, recurring, or a one-time budget bridge.
Do not write yetFund-balance and reserve rows are planned source or projected-balance context, not audited cash or recurring revenue.
Funding modelWho pays for the operating budget, and is that funding mix typical for local peers?
The largest operating revenue source is local sources, 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.Latest General Fund operating revenue summary, operating-budget denominator, and local peer source-share context.
Compare operating revenue shares against the Somerset County average; keep state aid, local levy, federal support, and fund balance on their own bases.Check: Revenue families
Pull or ask
State-aid notices and aid-calculation summary.
Budget-book revenue schedule and levy-cap worksheet.
Ask what share is formula aid, levy, reserve use, or one-time support.
Do not write yetOperating revenue is General Fund operating revenue, not all-funds revenue or a tax-bill calculation.
This path is generated from the same ranked UFB signals as the budget memo and claim audit. It is a reporting crosswalk, not a finding that one row caused another.
Public hearing agenda
This turns the budget report into meeting questions: the generated UFB signal, the local record or explanation to ask for, the proof section to open, and the reading that should be blocked before a resident or reporter writes from the numbers.
Question
UFB signal
Ask for / check
Proof
Block this read
Current proposalWhich proposed changes are recurring, which are one-time or restricted, and what local action explains the largest named row?
Operating proposal changes +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed. Top named row: Total General Current Expense +$1,103,190 (Appropriation line 72260).
Budget-hearing presentation, revised/current-to-proposed detail, board resolutions, and the contract, grant, tuition, transfer, or staffing memo behind the largest changed row.
Do not describe nominal proposal-column movement as the CPI-adjusted trend or as an audited spending result.
Relative costWhy does the published cost position sit where it does after peer choice, grade span, service load, funding model, and outside-operating rows are named?
NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; local rank 9 of 18.
Adopted budget book, peer roster, grade-span/program notes, placement and transportation schedules, and budget presentations for the named peers.
Do not turn a high or low rank into efficiency, waste, adequacy, or quality language without outside reporting.
Categories and linesWhich category or source family is actually driving the story, and which account, program, restriction, or transfer sits underneath it?
Instruction programs: $6,099,492; 33% of operating-budget scale; +3 pts versus Somerset County average; +$69,985 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26; largest row: Total Regular Programs-Instruction.
Account detail for the selected family, program or staffing schedules, contract or transfer documents, grant/restriction notes, and board packet explanations for the largest row.
Do not add budget families or lower-level rows together; many are nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.
Inflation and denominatorIs the multi-year movement a real spending change, a planning-enrollment denominator change, a category mix change, or a one-year row?
Real operating budget changed +$1,015,402 from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Real operating budget per UFB planning student changed +$474. UFB planning on-roll changed +26.
First and latest budget books, enrollment projection memos, budget adoption minutes, account-level change notes, and any one-time grant, reserve, capital, or debt documents.
Do not make ordinary nominal growth the story until CPI-U, planning enrollment, peers, and category rows have been checked.
Students and servicesWhich enrollment, placement, tuition, preschool, transportation, or service-plan assumption changes the per-student read?
Special-education on-roll planning share is 11%, 6 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19.
Enrollment projection worksheet, fall-enrollment comparison, placement and tuition schedules, transportation contracts, preschool/service-plan notes, and receiving/sending district records.
Do not treat UFB planning rows as fall enrollment, direct student need, compliance, or service quality proof.
Reserves and side filesWhich balance, reserve, one-time, shared-service, unusual, grant, capital, or debt rows belong in the story, and which are outside recurring operating?
Fund-balance/reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million. All-funds net spending is $19.7 million, $1.3 million above proposed operating budget. Largest projected balance row: Restricted-General Operating Budget: Capital Reserve at $1.1 million. Shared-service file has 8 rows.
Audit or ACFR fund-balance note, reserve-transfer approvals, unusual-item explanations, shared-service agreements, grant award letters, capital project schedules, and debt-service documents.
Do not treat planned balance or reserve rows as audited cash, recurring revenue, or a structural-deficit finding; do not sum side files into operating spending.
This is generated from the same UFB rows as the report, but the records named here are outside the UFB release. The table is a civic checklist, not a claim that the outside records already prove the explanation.
Budget news judgment
This filter labels what is background, what the UFB rows can support now, what needs a second signal, and what still requires outside reporting before the budget story is written.
Judgment
Evidence
Next step
Do not write
BackgroundNominal budget growth or a plain spending-up sentence.
Nominal operating budget moved +$4,587,999 from 2019-20 to 2025-26. The report tests that against CPI-U, UFB planning enrollment, and peer evidence: real operating budget per UFB planning student moved +$474.
Move to real dollars, fair peer/slice comparisons, category/source-family evidence, proposal columns, or side-file context before making it the story.Trends and inflation
Do not publish a generic 'spending went up' read as the budget story unless the second signal explains why it matters.
UFB-ready factThe latest proposal column changed.
Proposed operating budget changed +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed in the latest UFB file.
Report it as nominal current-proposal movement, then inspect named revenue and appropriation rows.Proposal changes
Do not mix this latest-file movement with the CPI-adjusted multi-year trend.
Reportable UFB signalDo student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?
special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis. Evidence basis: Student-flow, tuition, preschool, placement, and service-load rows tied to the UFB planning denominator.
Use this as the first local budget question, then check the linked proof section.Student load
Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
Second-signal checkWhich operating-use category makes the district unlike its peers?
Capital outlay share is <1%, 3 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19. Evidence basis: High-level General Fund appropriation rows and operating-budget-share peer comparisons.
Carry this beside the lead so the first read is tested against another denominator, file, or comparison frame.Spending categories
High-level use shares share one denominator, but lower-level UFB rows can overlap and should not be summed.
Needs reportingTurn the student/service family signal into a local explanation.
Budget book, board packet, and account detail behind the linked proof section. Audit note or outside schedule if the row is restricted or one-time. Ask which local decision, outside requirement, or accounting rule produced the signal.
Check tuition, placement, preschool, transportation, service-plan, and receiving/sending records before explaining the per-student effect.Student load
Student and service rows signal budget load, not student need, service quality, or compliance by themselves.
Blocked shortcutCause, waste, adequacy, efficiency, intent, quality, or blame.
UFB rows can flag a reportable budget signal; they do not prove why it happened or whether it is good policy.
Use board documents, contracts, tax records, staffing/program records, audits, and interviews before writing causal language.Source rows
Do not turn student/service family into a causal or quality claim from UFB alone.
The filter is generated from the same ranked UFB evidence as the reading memo, claim audit, and reporting notebook. It is a news judgment screen, not a causal model or a quality rating.
Budget diagnosis
For Watchung Borough, the strongest generated read is students and service load. The table ranks the explanatory lanes before the report opens the long evidence sections, so the budget is not reduced to ordinary per-pupil growth or a single cost rank.
general current expense is the largest high-level use at >99% of operating budget; support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average; named row Total Tax Levy is +16 pts versus local peers.
Which spending category, pupil-cost row, or named source row turns the broad cost number into a concrete budget story.
A program audit, a complete causal bridge, or an additive sum of nested UFB rows.
local sources supply 84% of General Fund operating revenue; that source share is 8 pts above the Somerset County average; tax levy per UFB on-roll is $22,538, $543 below the Somerset County average; fund-balance, reserve, and carryover source rows total $1.2 million.
Why the same cost figure can mean different things in a state-funded, locally funded, federally supported, or balance-supported district.
A tax bill, a sustainability finding, or proof that source shares explain spending quality.
NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts; operating budget per UFB on-roll is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average; statewide comparative-cost rank is 146 of 566.
Whether the district is actually unusual after the local peer frame and operating denominator are named.
Quality, efficiency, adequacy, waste, or the cause of the rank.
operating budget changes +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed; largest named proposal movement is Operating budget at +$1,103,190.
What the latest UFB file says is changing now, in nominal revised/current-to-proposed dollars.
The long-run inflation-adjusted trend, or the board/contract/formula reason the proposal changed.
The diagnosis is generated from published UFB summary, source rows, local peer comparisons, side files, and loaded-year movement. It ranks evidence for reporting priority; it is not a causal model, quality rating, or accounting equation.
Comparison brief
Relative cost before the long report
This table puts the published cost line into the comparison frames that matter first: named local peers, all NJ districts, funding model, district scale, cost band, and any high-signal service or category slice. It is a triage layer before the detailed peer strips, slice panels, and source rows.
Comparison verdictConsistently above comparison frames. The comparative cost per pupil is above in 3 frames and near in 2 frames across the 5 front comparison frames shown.
Frame to checkMiddle-half comparative-cost districts: +$2,527 vs slice average; rank 4 of 282.
Reporting useUse the near frames to soften the rank before moving into category and denominator evidence. Open proof
Relative-cost ladder
Read across comparison frames before treating one rank as the story. These rows use NJDOE comparative cost when available, then operating cost per UFB on-roll as the fallback.
Frame
District
Comparison
Gap
Somerset County districtsClosest named local benchmark before any statewide ranking.Comparative cost per pupil
$24,7129 of 18
$24,879Somerset County average
-$167
All NJ UFB districtsBroad statewide baseline; useful, but not a fair peer group by itself.Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712146 of 566
$23,591NJ average
+$1,121
Middle-half comparative-cost districtsThis asks whether the district is unusual even among districts in the same cost band.Comparative cost per pupil
$24,7124 of 282
$22,185slice average
+$2,527
500-2,499 UFB on-roll districtsScale helps separate large-system budgets from fixed-cost small-district pressure.Comparative cost per pupil
$24,71260 of 268
$22,956slice average
+$1,756
Mostly locally funded districtsFunding model changes what the same per-pupil cost can mean.Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712112 of 368
$24,352slice average
+$360
Frame
District
Comparison
Named check
How to use it
Somerset County districtsClosest named local benchmark before any statewide ranking.
Broad statewide baseline; useful, but not a fair peer group by itself. Secondary clue: Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $12,002 below the NJ average.Open proof
Middle-half comparative-cost districtsThis asks whether the district is unusual even among districts in the same cost band.
This asks whether the district is unusual even among districts in the same cost band. Secondary clue: Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $750 above the slice average.Open proof
500-2,499 UFB on-roll districtsScale helps separate large-system budgets from fixed-cost small-district pressure.
Scale helps separate large-system budgets from fixed-cost small-district pressure. Secondary clue: Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $630 below the slice average.Open proof
Mostly locally funded districtsFunding model changes what the same per-pupil cost can mean.
Funding model changes what the same per-pupil cost can mean. Secondary clue: Local operating revenue share is 84%, near the slice average.Open proof
Frames overlap and keep their own denominators. "Next higher" and "next lower" are numeric positions on the selected measure, not judgments about efficiency, adequacy, or quality.
Budget story spine
This scan-first table turns the strongest generated signals into a proof path. It keeps the claim, UFB evidence, fair comparison, outside reporting need, and counter-reading in one row before the report opens the longer evidence sections.
Story path
UFB proof
Comparison / proof
Outside reporting
Do not overread
Student/service familyDo student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?
source familyspecial education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.
Student loadSomerset County average where local peer rows are usable; statewide and slice frames where the local peer set is incomplete.
Check tuition, placement, preschool, transportation, service-plan, and receiving/sending records before explaining the per-student effect.
Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
Spending mixWhich operating-use category makes the district unlike its peers?
<1%Capital outlay share is <1%, 3 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19.
Spending categoriesSomerset County average where local peer rows are usable; statewide and slice frames where the local peer set is incomplete.
Identify the program, contract, transfer recipient, school allocation, or staffing pattern behind the category before attaching a policy explanation.
High-level use shares share one denominator, but lower-level UFB rows can overlap and should not be summed.
Reserves and fund balanceAre balance, reserve, or carryover rows part of this budget year’s story?
$1.2 millionFund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.
ReservesSomerset County average where local peer rows are usable; statewide and slice frames where the local peer set is incomplete.
Check audited fund balance, reserve purpose, transfer approvals, and whether the budgeted source is recurring or one-time.
Fund-balance and reserve rows are planned source or projected-balance context, not audited cash or recurring revenue.
Funding modelWho pays for the operating budget, and is that funding mix typical for local peers?
84%The largest operating revenue source is local sources, 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.
Revenue familiesSomerset County average where local peer rows are usable; statewide and slice frames where the local peer set is incomplete.
Read aid notices, budget-hearing materials, and board minutes to separate formula aid, one-time support, reserve use, and local decisions.
Operating revenue is General Fund operating revenue, not all-funds revenue or a tax-bill calculation.
Line movementWhich named source row moved most after inflation across loaded UFB years?
+$1,128,369Largest inflation-adjusted named-line movement: Total Debt Service Funds, +$1,128,369 from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Line historySomerset County average where local peer rows are usable; statewide and slice frames where the local peer set is incomplete.
Find the formula, grant, transfer, contract, staffing, or accounting event behind the named row movement.
The selected row is a reporting lead, not a complete explanation of the operating budget change.
Pupil-cost lineWhich NJDOE standardized per-pupil row is furthest from the local peer average?
$3,954Support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average.
Pupil-cost rowsSomerset County average where local peer rows are usable; statewide and slice frames where the local peer set is incomplete.
Read staffing, benefits, facilities, and program documents for the cost row; standardized pupil-cost categories are summaries, not explanations.
Several pupil-cost rows are components of broader totals, not an additive bridge.
The spine is generated from latest-year peer gaps, named UFB rows, planning-enrollment evidence, side files, and real-dollar trend checks. It ranks reportable evidence paths, not spending quality or causal certainty.
Budget storylines to test
These are not finished articles. They are generated story packages that turn the strongest UFB signals into a responsible reporting route: the working nut graf, why the claim matters to readers, the proof inside UFB, the outside record to pull next, and the sentence not to write yet.
1Student/service family
Student and service rows can change the per-pupil read
Working nut graf. For Watchung Borough, the UFB-supported story to test is this: special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis. The reporting question is: Do student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?
Why readers careReaders can keep student-flow, tuition, preschool, and service-load rows attached to per-student cost claims.Proof in UFBStudent-flow, tuition, preschool, placement, and service-load rows tied to the UFB planning denominator. Student loadReport nextCheck tuition, placement, preschool, transportation, service-plan, and receiving/sending records before explaining the per-student effect.Do not write yetStudent and service rows signal budget load, not student need, service quality, or compliance by themselves.
2Spending mix
The category mix is where the budget becomes concrete
Working nut graf. For Watchung Borough, the UFB-supported story to test is this: Capital outlay share is <1%, 3 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19. The reporting question is: Which operating-use category makes the district unlike its peers?
Why readers careReaders can move from one total budget number to the source row, program, transfer, or cost family that actually needs explanation.Proof in UFBHigh-level General Fund appropriation rows and operating-budget-share peer comparisons. Spending categoriesReport nextIdentify the program, contract, transfer recipient, school allocation, or staffing pattern behind the category before attaching a policy explanation.Do not write yetA large share can be a pass-through, required service, accounting structure, or policy choice; the category label alone does not say which.
3Reserves and fund balance
One-time sources need a recurrence check
Working nut graf. For Watchung Borough, the UFB-supported story to test is this: Fund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million. The reporting question is: Are balance, reserve, or carryover rows part of this budget year’s story?
Why readers careReaders can distinguish budget-year support from recurring revenue or audited cash availability.Proof in UFBUFB fund-balance, reserve, carryover, and projected-balance rows plus local peer scale. ReservesReport nextCheck audited fund balance, reserve purpose, transfer approvals, and whether the budgeted source is recurring or one-time.Do not write yetBudgeted balances and reserves are planned sources or projected balances, not audited cash available for any purpose.
4Funding model
Who pays may explain more than how much
Working nut graf. For Watchung Borough, the UFB-supported story to test is this: The largest operating revenue source is local sources, 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average. The reporting question is: Who pays for the operating budget, and is that funding mix typical for local peers?
Why readers careReaders can separate a budget that is locally funded, state-aid driven, federally supported, or temporarily balanced by reserves before judging the same cost number.Proof in UFBLatest General Fund operating revenue summary, operating-budget denominator, and local peer source-share context. Revenue familiesReport nextRead aid notices, budget-hearing materials, and board minutes to separate formula aid, one-time support, reserve use, and local decisions.Do not write yetA state-funded, locally funded, or fund-balance-heavy budget can produce the same cost figure for different reasons.
Storylines are ranked from local peer gaps, source-row scale, planning-enrollment rows, side-file signals, proposal movement, and CPI-adjusted loaded-year checks. Money bases, fund scope, and denominators stay attached to each route; comparative cost remains NJDOE’s published metric.
Budget claim audit
This audit turns the report’s strongest signals into sentence-level budget claims. It separates what the UFB rows support from what still requires board materials, contracts, audits, tax records, staffing context, program records, or interviews.
Claim status
Safe wording
Evidence basis
Still not proven
Proof / next check
UFB-supported fact
The latest UFB file shows the proposed operating budget changes +$1,103,190 from the revised/current column to the proposed column.
Latest-year UFB revised/current and proposed operating-budget columns; nominal dollars.
This is the live proposal move, not the inflation-adjusted long-run trend or the reason the proposal changed.
special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.
Student-flow, tuition, preschool, placement, and service-load rows tied to the UFB planning denominator.
Service-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.
Rows are generated from latest-year peer gaps, named UFB rows, planning-enrollment evidence, side files, latest-file proposal columns, and inflation-adjusted trend checks. Safe wording is the strongest UFB-supported sentence before outside reporting, not a finished story.
Comparison movement brief
This table separates the generic spending-up-over-time story from the district-specific comparison story. It asks whether selected cost, funding, tax, category, and service-load measures moved toward or away from the Somerset County average from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Measure
First gap
Latest gap
Read the movement
Check next
Comparative cost per pupil2019-20 to 2025-26
-$4642019-20 vs local peer average
-$1672025-26 vs local peer average
The measure moved closer to the Somerset County average; the gap moved +$298.
Money measures are converted to 2025 dollars before peer gaps are compared. This is a direction-of-comparison brief, not a causal test; a widening or narrowing gap still needs category, denominator, tax, service-load, and source-row evidence.
Comparison-frame movement
This panel takes the latest-year comparison frames from the relative-cost ladder and asks whether this district's published comparative cost moved closer to or farther from each frame from 2019-20 to 2025-26, after CPI-U adjustment.
Latest readFrame-sensitive over time. The latest real comparative cost is above in 4 frames and below in 1 frame.
Largest movementMostly locally funded districts moved +$2,013 versus its frame.
Reporting useOne comparison frame cannot carry the story; name which frame changes the read.
Frame
First gap
Latest gap
Movement
Read the movement
Somerset County districtsClosest named local comparison set.
-$4642019-20 vs Somerset County average
-$1672025-26 vs Somerset County average
+$2982019-20 to 2025-26
The measure moved closer to the Somerset County average; the gap moved +$298.
All NJ UFB districtsBroad statewide baseline; useful, but not a fair peer group by itself.
-$3062019-20 vs NJ average
+$1,1212025-26 vs NJ average
+$1,4272019-20 to 2025-26
The measure crossed from below to above the NJ average; the gap moved +$1,427.
500-2,499 UFB on-roll districtsLatest-year UFB on-roll scale group held constant across loaded years.
+$712019-20 vs slice average
+$1,7562025-26 vs slice average
+$1,6852019-20 to 2025-26
The measure moved farther above the slice average; the gap moved +$1,685.
Middle-half comparative-cost districtsLatest-year comparative-cost band held constant across loaded years.
+$9472019-20 vs slice average
+$2,5272025-26 vs slice average
+$1,5792019-20 to 2025-26
The measure moved farther above the slice average; the gap moved +$1,579.
Mostly locally funded districtsLatest-year funding model held constant across loaded years.
-$1,6532019-20 vs slice average
+$3602025-26 vs slice average
+$2,0132019-20 to 2025-26
The measure crossed from below to above the slice average; the gap moved +$2,013.
Money values are converted to 2025 dollars before gaps are compared. Frame membership uses the latest UFB year and is held constant when looking backward, so this is a fair-comparison trend check, not a cohort study, efficiency rating, adequacy finding, or causal explanation.
Operating story basis
This table classifies the latest UFB evidence before the report asks what the budget means. It separates recurring operating-budget signals from the live proposal, reserve and carryover sources, side-file context, and outside-operating rows before comparing this district with the Somerset County average or statewide slices.
proposed operating budget $18,367,068; local sources supply 84% of operating revenue; general current expense is >99% of operating usesScale: $18.4 million
Use for the district’s main current-year operating story: who funds the General Fund operating budget and which high-level uses dominate it.
Do not mix this with all-funds grants, debt, capital, or side-file rows as though everything recurs on the same basis.
all-funds net above operating is the largest outside-operating row, $1,337,046Scale: 7% of operating budget
Use as scale context for grants, debt, capital, preschool, and other fund sections that can make all-funds totals diverge from the operating story.
Do not add these rows to General Fund operating uses or treat the operating-equivalent share as a spending mix.
The recurring row uses the proposed General Fund operating budget as the common basis. Proposal movement is nominal revised/current-to-proposed evidence; trend panels convert dollars to 2025 only where labeled. Reserve, recap, unusual-item, shared-service, tax, and outside-operating rows are kept separate because they answer different journalism questions.
Structural squeeze test
The squeeze test asks whether Watchung Borough has the pattern a budget story usually needs: main operating sources, operating-use families, one-time support, denominator or service-load rows, and peer context pointing toward recurring pressure. It also marks what UFB cannot prove.
Local, state, and federal operating-source summaries moved +$1,051,661 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26; those summaries equal 93% of the latest proposed operating budget; operating-budget scale moved +$1,015,402, while source movement outpaced it by $36,259.
Use this to test whether the main recurring operating sources kept pace with operating scale after CPI-U. It is not a tax-cap or adequacy finding by itself.
Pull the levy-cap worksheet, state-aid notice, cap-bank/waiver rows, budget book, and board presentation before writing a cap-limited or underfunded-budget claim.
Special education and student supports moved +$930,117 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26; latest scale is 21% of proposed operating budget; 6 pts above the Somerset County average; largest latest source row: Total Special Education-Instruction.
Use this as the first appropriation/use family to inspect. Rows can still be nested, so this does not prove a single driver or an additive subtotal.
Pull staffing rosters, contracts, placement details, program schedules, and budget-book narratives before assigning cause or judging service quality.
Budgeted fund balance is the largest latest named limited-source row inside $1,224,847 of fund-balance, reserve, and carryover sources; total limited-source support moved -$215,326 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Use this to test whether the operating story depends partly on balance, reserve, or carryover rows rather than recurring operating sources.
Pull the audit, reserve schedules, fund-balance policy, appropriation-of-surplus resolution, and board packet before calling this cash stress or a structural deficit.
UFB planning on-roll moved +26; special-education on-roll is 73 (11% of UFB on-roll).
Use this to keep per-pupil cost and category movement tied to the planning denominator and visible service-load rows.
Pull fall enrollment, special-education placement records, IEP/service obligations, tuition contracts, and staffing schedules before explaining why the load changed.
Comparative cost per pupil is $24,712, -$167 vs Somerset County average; rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts; Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, -$20,101 vs Somerset County average; State operating revenue share is 9%, -11 pts vs Somerset County average.
Use the peer frame to decide whether the squeeze signal is district-specific, common among local peers, or mainly a funding-model comparison.
Pull comparable districts' budget books, staffing/service context, and tax-base records before treating a rank as efficiency, adequacy, or resident impact.
UFB rows can show loaded-year source movement, operating-use movement, limited-source rows, service-load denominators, and peer position through 2025-26.
Use UFB to form a recurring-pressure hypothesis and to say which signals point the same direction. Do not write future deficit, statutory cap exhaustion, layoffs, service cuts, or intent from UFB alone.
Pull the board budget book, public-hearing deck, tax levy cap calculation, state aid notice, collective-bargaining and staffing records, audit, and any projected-gap or cut-list documents.
Dollar movement uses 2025 CPI-U dollars where the row says after inflation. The test is a reporting checklist, not a structural-deficit finding, tax-bill estimate, service-quality rating, or levy-cap calculation.
Budget flow bridge
This table keeps the budget report from reading as disconnected panels. It puts the relative cost frame, money in, money out, proposal movement, outside-operating rows, side files, and student denominator in one scan before the report compares this district with the Somerset County average and the statewide slices below.
All-funds net above operating: $1.3 million (7%); Debt Service Funds: $1.1 million (6%); Special Revenue Funds: $208,677 (1%)
Use this to explain why all-funds totals, grants, debt, capital, preschool, or project rows can make the budget look different from the operating story.
+2 pts vs Somerset County average; rank 3 of 15
Do not fold outside-operating rows into the General Fund operating mix or assume the operating-equivalent share recurs each year.
Budgeted fund balance $1.2 million; one-time source rows $1.2 million; projected recap balances $1.6 million
Use these side files to decide whether reserve use, projected balances, unusual explanations, shared services, or tax basis should travel with the operating story.
Peer and history checks live in the side-file and reserve sections; they are separate from operating-revenue mix.
Do not read side files as recurring revenue, audited cash, complete payroll, audited savings, or tax-bill advice.
UFB planning on-roll 674; fall enrollment 633; special-education planning rows 11% of UFB on-roll
Use this before making per-student claims: the UFB planning denominator, fall enrollment, and service-load rows can point to different stories.
-6 pts vs Somerset County average; rank 18 of 19
Do not replace NJDOE comparative cost with a homemade denominator or treat planning rows as direct proof of student need.
The bridge is a reporting map, not an accounting equation. It uses the proposed General Fund operating budget as a common scale only where labeled; proposal rows are nominal latest-file movement, and inflation-adjusted trend evidence appears later in 2025 dollars.
Budget pressure map
This table turns the report into a first-read checklist. It ranks the budget pressures that UFB evidence can surface for this district, then separates what each pressure can explain from what still needs reporting outside the UFB files.
Comparative cost per pupil is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; local rank 9 of 18; Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average; statewide comparative-cost rank 146 of 566.
Whether the district looks high, low, or ordinary before a reader turns to categories, taxes, and service load.
Spending quality, efficiency, or the reason the district sits where it does.
local sources supply 84% of General Fund operating revenue; that source share is 8 pts above the Somerset County average; tax levy per UFB on-roll is $22,538, $543 below the Somerset County average; fund-balance, reserve, and carryover sources total $1.2 million.
Who pays for the operating budget and whether a cost position also creates local levy, aid, or balance-source pressure.
A property-tax bill, audited all-funds revenue, or proof that the funding model is sustainable.
general current expense is the largest high-level use at >99% of operating budget; support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average; named row Total Tax Levy is +16 pts versus local peers.
Which use categories, cost rows, or named source rows deserve the first follow-up instead of quoting total spending.
A complete program budget or an additive accounting bridge; UFB rows can be nested, repeated, or contextual.
All-funds net above operating is $1.3 million, 7% of operating budget; 4 material outside-operating rows clear the scale threshold.
Why all-funds, grants, debt, capital, preschool, or project rows may change the budget-year context.
A General Fund operating spending mix, or evidence that outside-operating rows recur on the same basis.
Pressure rows are generated from the latest UFB summary, source rows, local peer comparisons where enough peers have data, and loaded-year trend rows. Money movement is inflation-adjusted only where this table says 2025 dollars or after inflation; proposal rows are nominal latest-file changes.
Budget tension checks
These checks pair signals that are easy to overread alone: current cost position, inflation-adjusted movement, proposal-column changes, tax burden, funding model, category slices, service load, reserves, and outside-operating rows.
Tension to test
Signal pair
How it changes the read
Proof
Cost position vs real trend
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average; rank 12 of 19 among Somerset County districts.Operating budget per UFB on-roll student changed +$474 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
A below-peer cost position can still be moving up in real terms, so the comparison should not flatten the inflation story.
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average; rank 12 of 19 among Somerset County districts.Tax levy as operating-budget equivalent is 83%, 13 pts above the Somerset County average; rank 8 of 18 among Somerset County districts.
Local tax pressure can be high even when the cost line is not above peers; the burden story is about who pays, not only what is spent.
Operating budget changes +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed in the latest UFB file.Operating scale changed +$1,015,402 in 2025 dollars from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
The latest proposal and the real trend point the same way, but proposal-column movement is nominal and current-year while the trend is inflation-adjusted across loaded years.
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average; rank 12 of 19 among Somerset County districts.Support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average; rank 13 of 18 among Somerset County districts.
The category row helps turn the cost comparison into a concrete budget question, but it should not be treated as a complete program audit.
State operating revenue share is 9%, 11 pts below the Somerset County average; rank 10 of 18 among Somerset County districts.Support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average; rank 13 of 18 among Somerset County districts.
Pair the revenue model with the use category before implying that a high or low spending slice is locally discretionary.
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average; rank 12 of 19 among Somerset County districts.special-education planning share is 11%, 6 pts below the Somerset County average.
Before treating the per-pupil number as a pure spending comparison, check whether placements, special education, or the UFB denominator explain part of the position.
Tension checks are generated from the same UFB rows used elsewhere in the report. They are not causal findings. Money trend claims are inflation-adjusted only where labeled as 2025 dollars or after inflation; proposal movement is nominal revised/current-to-proposed movement.
Category story map
Local taxes and local sources is the largest selected source-row family at 87% of operating-budget scale. Local taxes and local sources has the widest selected local peer gap, 13 pts above the Somerset County average. Local taxes and local sources moved the most after inflation, +$1,084,484 from 2019-20 to 2025-26. This map puts the category question in one place: current scale, local comparison, inflation-adjusted movement, and the latest proposal-column move.
Budget family
Question to test
Category evidence
Source row and proof
Local taxes and local sourceslarge current scale / local peer gap / inflation-adjusted movement
How much of the budget story is local levy, tuition, fees, or miscellaneous local revenue?
Latest scale $15,976,115 (87% op. equiv.)+13 pts versus the Somerset County average+$1,084,484 real movement from 2019-20 to 2025-26+$904,348 latest proposal movement; +5 pts of operating scale
Total Tax Levy (Revenue line 100/114, $15,190,345)Total Tax Levy (+$816,202 latest-file move)CategoriesProposalTrend
Instruction programslarge current scale / local peer gap / inflation-adjusted movement
Which classroom or instructional program rows define the core spending structure?
Latest scale $6,099,492 (33% op. equiv.)+3 pts versus the Somerset County average+$69,985 real movement from 2019-20 to 2025-26+$581,652 latest proposal movement; +3 pts of operating scale
Total Regular Programs-Instruction (Appropriation line 3200, $5,096,201)Total Regular Programs-Instruction (+$413,951 latest-file move)CategoriesProposalTrend
Special education and student supportslarge current scale / local peer gap / inflation-adjusted movement
Are special education, child study, therapies, guidance, or student supports driving the budget question?
Latest scale $3,887,768 (21% op. equiv.)+6 pts versus the Somerset County average+$930,117 real movement from 2019-20 to 2025-26+$36,634 latest proposal movement; 0 pts of operating scale
Total Special Education-Instruction (Appropriation line 10300, $2,603,332)Total Special Education-Instruction (+$92,538 latest-file move)CategoriesTrend
Employee benefitslarge current scale / local peer gap / inflation-adjusted movement
How large are benefit rows, and are they moving differently from the overall budget?
Latest scale $3,858,382 (21% op. equiv.)+3 pts versus the Somerset County average+$536,102 real movement from 2019-20 to 2025-26+$401,865 latest proposal movement; +2 pts of operating scale
Total Personal Services-Employee Benefits (Appropriation line 71260, $3,858,382)Total Personal Services-Employee Benefits (+$401,865 latest-file move)CategoriesProposalTrend
State aidlarge current scale / local peer gap / inflation-adjusted movement
Which aid lines explain dependence on state funding or first-to-latest movement?
Latest scale $1,586,213 (9% op. equiv.)-12 pts versus the Somerset County average+$779,170 real movement from 2019-20 to 2025-26-$15,701 latest proposal movement; 0 pts of operating scale
Categorical Special Education Aid (Revenue line 440, $692,472)Categorical Special Education Aid (-$115,175 latest-file move)CategoriesTrend
Capital, facilities, and debtlarge current scale / inflation-adjusted movement / latest proposal move
Are capital projects, facilities acquisition, reserve withdrawals, or debt-service rows distorting all-funds comparisons?
Latest scale $2,718,613 (15% op. equiv.)+1 pt versus the Somerset County average+$432,678 real movement from 2019-20 to 2025-26-$360,289 latest proposal movement; -2 pts of operating scale
Total Debt Service Funds (Appropriation line 89980, $1,128,369)Debt Service Aid Type II (-$203,949 latest-file move)CategoriesProposalTrendSide files
Budget families are generated from contextual UFB revenue and appropriation source rows. Latest scale and peer gap use proposed operating budget as a common denominator; real movement is converted to 2025 dollars; proposal movement is nominal revised/current-to-proposed movement in the latest UFB file. Families can be nested, outside-operating, or repeated across files, so this is a reporting map rather than an additive budget schedule.
Proposal versus trend
The latest proposal and the loaded-year category trend do not answer the same question. For State aid, the proposal is a counter-move: -$15,701 in nominal latest-file movement versus +$779,170 across loaded years after inflation. Across material family rows, this scan finds 10 continuing trends, 4 counter-moves, and 1 current-only move.
Relationship
Loaded-year trend
Current proposal
How to read it
Counter-moveState aid
+$779,1702019-20 to 2025-26 in 2025 dollars; share moved +4 pts.
-$15,7010 pts of proposed operating-budget scale.Categorical Special Education Aid (Revenue, line 440, -$115,175)
The latest proposal points opposite the loaded-year real movement, so this is the first place to check whether the budget is pivoting.ProposalTrendCategoriesPeers
Continues trendGeneral current expense
+$2,119,4542019-20 to 2025-26 in 2025 dollars; share moved +6 pts.
+$1,103,190+6 pts of proposed operating-budget scale.Total General Current Expense (Appropriation, line 72260, +$1,103,190)
The latest proposal points in the same direction as the inflation-adjusted movement across loaded UFB years.ProposalTrendCategoriesPeers
Current-only moveSpecial revenue funds
+$17,1912019-20 to 2025-26 in 2025 dollars; share moved 0 pts.
-$415,502-2 pts of proposed operating-budget scale.Total Special Revenue Funds (Appropriation, line 88760, -$207,751)
The latest proposal has a visible family move, while the loaded-year real trend is not material enough to call a direction.ProposalTrendCategoriesPeers
Continues trendLocal taxes and local sources
+$1,084,4842019-20 to 2025-26 in 2025 dollars; share moved +1 pt.
+$904,348+5 pts of proposed operating-budget scale.Total Tax Levy (Revenue, line 100/114, +$816,202)
The latest proposal points in the same direction as the inflation-adjusted movement across loaded UFB years.ProposalTrendCategoriesPeers
Continues trendTransfers and tuition
-$161,4562019-20 to 2025-26 in 2025 dollars; share moved -1 pt.
-$174,234-1 pt of proposed operating-budget scale.Total Undistributed Expenditures-Instruction (Tuition) (Appropriation, line 29180, -$150,234)
The latest proposal points in the same direction as the inflation-adjusted movement across loaded UFB years.ProposalTrendCategoriesPeers
Counter-moveCapital, facilities, and debt
+$432,6782019-20 to 2025-26 in 2025 dollars; share moved +2 pts.
-$360,289-2 pts of proposed operating-budget scale.Debt Service Aid Type II (Revenue, line 890, -$203,949)
The latest proposal points opposite the loaded-year real movement, so this is the first place to check whether the budget is pivoting.ProposalTrendCategoriesPeers
This bridge keeps timing bases separate. Loaded-year trend values are inflation-adjusted to 2025 dollars and compare the first and latest loaded UFB years; proposal values are nominal revised/current-to-proposed movement in the latest UFB file. A counter-move is a reporting prompt, not proof of a policy reversal or cause.
Budget reporting lead sheet
This lead sheet turns the generated budget signals into a reporting agenda: what looks most explainable, what question a resident should ask, and which caveat keeps the evidence from becoming an overclaim.
1Student/service familysource familyspecial education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.Reader questionDo student-flow, tuition, preschool, or service-load rows change the per-student read?Do not overreadService-family rows are budget context, not direct evidence of student need, service quality, or compliance.Student load
2Spending mix<1%Capital outlay share is <1%, 3 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19.Reader questionWhich operating-use category makes the district unlike its peers?Do not overreadHigh-level use shares share one denominator, but lower-level UFB rows can overlap and should not be summed.Spending categories
3Reserves and fund balance$1.2 millionFund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.Reader questionAre balance, reserve, or carryover rows part of this budget year’s story?Do not overreadFund-balance and reserve rows are planned source or projected-balance context, not audited cash or recurring revenue.Reserves
4Funding model84%The largest operating revenue source is local sources, 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.Reader questionWho pays for the operating budget, and is that funding mix typical for local peers?Do not overreadOperating revenue is General Fund operating revenue, not all-funds revenue or a tax-bill calculation.Revenue families
5Line movement+$1,128,369Largest inflation-adjusted named-line movement: Total Debt Service Funds, +$1,128,369 from 2019-20 to 2025-26.Reader questionWhich named source row moved most after inflation across loaded UFB years?Do not overreadThe selected row is a reporting lead, not a complete explanation of the operating budget change.Line history
6Pupil-cost line$3,954Support services per pupil is $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average.Reader questionWhich NJDOE standardized per-pupil row is furthest from the local peer average?Do not overreadSeveral pupil-cost rows are components of broader totals, not an additive bridge.Pupil-cost rows
7Cost position$24,712NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712 per pupil, rank 9 of 18 among Somerset County districts, $167 below the Somerset County average.Reader questionDoes the cost rank still make sense after funding model, scale, placements, and outside-operating rows are considered?Do not overreadNJDOE comparative cost is the publisher’s metric; this is a comparison lead, not a judgment or a recomputed cost.Peer evidence
8Special education planning11%Special-education on-roll planning share is 11%, 6 pts below the Somerset County average.Reader questionIs a visible share of the planning denominator tied to special-education on-roll rows?Do not overreadPlanning rows signal service load; they do not identify student need by themselves.Service load
Lead order comes from local peer gaps, UFB row scale, planning-enrollment rows, and inflation-adjusted movement. It ranks reportability, not importance to students or proof that a district should spend differently.
Editorial frame
For Watchung Borough, the useful budget question is how to read comparative cost is $167 below the Somerset County average, local sources supply 84% of operating revenue, largest use is general current expense at >99%, and real operating scale changed +$1,015,402 since 2019-20. UFB can establish the money basis, peer position, row scale, and loaded-year movement; it cannot by itself prove whether the pattern reflects policy choices, student need, contracts, facilities, tax capacity, or one-time accounting.
What UFB can establish
Student/service familyspecial education and student supports moved +$930,117 after CPI-U from 2019-20 to 2025-26; +6 pts versus the Somerset County average; operating-budget-scale share moved +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Source-family rows can be nested, contextual, or outside recurring operating basis.Student load
Spending mixCapital outlay share is <1%, 3 pts below the Somerset County average; local rank 18 of 19.Spending categories
Reserves and fund balanceFund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.Reserves
Funding modelThe largest operating revenue source is local sources, 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.Revenue families
What still needs reporting
Student/service familyCheck tuition, placement, preschool, transportation, service-plan, and receiving/sending records before explaining the per-student effect.
Spending mixIdentify the program, contract, transfer recipient, school allocation, or staffing pattern behind the category before attaching a policy explanation.
Reserves and fund balanceCheck audited fund balance, reserve purpose, transfer approvals, and whether the budgeted source is recurring or one-time.
Funding modelRead aid notices, budget-hearing materials, and board minutes to separate formula aid, one-time support, reserve use, and local decisions.
Competing readings to keep alive
Student/service familyStudent and service rows signal budget load, not student need, service quality, or compliance by themselves.
Spending mixA large share can be a pass-through, required service, accounting structure, or policy choice; the category label alone does not say which.
Reserves and fund balanceBudgeted balances and reserves are planned sources or projected balances, not audited cash available for any purpose.
Funding modelA state-funded, locally funded, or fund-balance-heavy budget can produce the same cost figure for different reasons.
This frame is generated from the same UFB signals as the lead sheet. It is designed to prevent the report from turning row evidence into unsupported causality.
Budget model synthesis
Read this budget as near-peer cost position, mostly locally funded, general-current centered, and real operating growth. The table below connects the strongest structural signals so the report is not just a list of panels.
Structural question
UFB evidence
Working read and proof section
Is this mainly a cost position or a scale story?
NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average; rank 9 of 18 locally; statewide rank 146 of 566; operating budget per UFB on-roll is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average
Can explainTreat cost rank as a starting signal, then test it against funding model, student/service load, denominator choices, and outside-operating rows before calling it efficiency, waste, or adequacy.Cannot proveA high or low rank does not prove value, waste, staffing quality, student need, or tax fairness by itself.Check: Peer evidence
Who pays, and is the tax-burden basis unusual?
local sources supply 84% of operating revenue, 8 pts above the Somerset County average; tax levy per UFB on-roll is $22,538, $543 below the Somerset County average; fund-balance/reserve sources equal $1.2 million
Can explainThe same per-pupil cost can mean different things in a locally funded, state-funded, or balance-supported budget. Operating revenue is not all-funds revenue, and UFB tax rows are context rather than a household tax bill.Cannot proveFunding share is not a full taxpayer-burden claim, and balance/reserve sources should not be read as recurring aid.Check: Operating funding and tax-burden basis
What does the operating budget buy differently?
largest high-level use is general current expense, >99% of operating budget; strongest peer mix gap is general current expense share at >99%, 4 pts above the Somerset County average; named-row standout: Total Tax Levy is +16 pts versus peers
Can explainUse shares and named rows are reporting leads. They can reflect pass-throughs, accounting structure, program obligations, staffing, contracts, facilities, or policy choices, so the category label is not the cause.Cannot proveUFB rows can be nested, repeated, or outside the operating fund, so category differences are not an additive causal bridge.Check: Categories and lines
Does the student/service load change the cost reading?
special-education planning share is 11%, 6 pts below the Somerset County average; free/reduced-price lunch is 0%, -28 pts versus county fall-enrollment context
Can explainPer-student comparisons move when the denominator, sent/received flows, special-education planning rows, or student-need context differ. These rows are context, not a quality or compliance finding by themselves.Cannot provePlanning-enrollment and placement rows do not replace fall enrollment, individual service plans, or audited program costs.Check: Costs and students
What is the live decision versus the real long-run movement?
latest proposal changes operating budget +$1,103,190; real operating scale changed +$1,015,402 from 2019-20 to 2025-26; UFB on-roll changed +26; operating per UFB on-roll changed +$474 after inflation
Can explainCurrent proposal changes are nominal latest-file decisions. Trend claims convert loaded years to real dollars, and per-student movement must separate the budget numerator from the UFB planning-enrollment denominator.Cannot proveA real-dollar movement does not identify the board decision, contract, aid formula, or accounting change that produced it.Check: Proposal and inflation trend
Which context rows may explain the budget year without being recurring operating spending?
fund-balance/reserve source rows total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance; projected close-year recap balances total $1.6 million; shared-service file lists 8 arrangements; selected administrative base-salary rows total $958,751
Can explainReserve, balance, unusual-item, shared-service, school-resource, tax-rate, and salary rows can explain a budget year, but they are mixed side files and should not be summed into operating spending.Cannot proveSide-file amounts are not audited recurring operating totals and may be explanations, balances, estimates, or staffing snapshots.Check: Side files
This is a generated synthesis of published UFB rows, local peer context, and loaded-year movement. It is a reporting frame, not a causal finding or a claim that unlike denominators can be added together.
Cost gap ledger
This ledger translates the cost comparison into the largest visible gaps against the Somerset County average. Dollar rows are shown per UFB planning student where the source row is not already a per-pupil measure, so a reader can see whether the story is broad operating scale, who pays, a use category, a pupil-cost row, or a service-load denominator.
Budget basis
This district
Gap vs average
How to read it
Proof
Published costNJDOE comparative cost
$24,712Somerset County average: $24,879
-$167Rank 9 of 18
This is the official comparison line. Use the rest of the ledger to see which budget bases point in the same or opposite direction.
Use rows show where dollars sit per planning student. They are clues, not an additive bridge, because UFB rows can be nested or outside operating funds.
Use rows show where dollars sit per planning student. They are clues, not an additive bridge, because UFB rows can be nested or outside operating funds.
Use rows show where dollars sit per planning student. They are clues, not an additive bridge, because UFB rows can be nested or outside operating funds.
Use rows show where dollars sit per planning student. They are clues, not an additive bridge, because UFB rows can be nested or outside operating funds.
Rows use the Somerset County average with usable latest-year UFB data. The ledger is not an additive decomposition: revenue rows, lower-level appropriation rows, outside-operating rows, and pupil-cost rows answer different questions and must be checked in their proof sections.
UFB source coverage
The latest matched UFB row for 2025-26 exposes 9 usable source families for this report. This inventory shows what each file can establish before the report turns those rows into peer comparisons, trend checks, and source tables.
Source family
Latest coverage
What it can establish
Where it appears
Summary
$18.4 million proposed operating budget; 7 loaded UFB years: 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Published comparative cost, operating budget, summary revenue shares, tax levy, and UFB on-roll planning enrollment.
peer evidence · anatomySummary rows are the profile-facing spine, but they do not replace detailed source files.
Revenue file
29 positive rows; 24 contextual rows in the appendix; largest: Total Revenues from Local Sources at $15.4 million.
Named aid, levy, fund-balance, reserve, tuition, grant, and other source rows behind the operating mix.
families · source rowsRevenue rows can include subtotals or non-operating sources; do not add the contextual rows into one revenue total.
Appropriation file
39 positive rows; 35 contextual rows in the appendix; largest: Total General Current Expense at $18.3 million.
High-level operating uses, fund totals, transfers, lower-level cost rows, capital, debt, and special-revenue scale.
categories · source rowsMany appropriation rows are nested; operating-equivalent shares are a scale reference, not an additive bridge.
Pupil-cost file
16 published per-pupil rows with latest proposed-year values.
NJDOE standardized per-pupil cost categories such as classroom, support, operations, administration, and benefits.
costs and studentsThese are NJDOE-published cost rows; the report does not recompute them from appropriations or enrollment.
Budget-enrollment file
5 planning rows; on-roll 674, special ed 73, received 28.
students and service loadThese are planning rows, not fall enrollment, and counts should not be added to dollar rows.
Recap / balances
14 balance rows; Restricted-General Operating Budget: Capital Reserve at $1.1 million.
Projected close-year balances, reserves, restricted balances, and fund-balance context.
side filesRecap balances are not current operating appropriations or spendable-cash claims.
Estimated tax file
1 municipal/regional slice; highest rate 0.727.
Estimated school-tax rates, levy slices, equalized values, taxable values, and regional spread context.
tax effort · raw tax rowsTax-file rows are estimated UFB context, not tax-bill advice or audited property-tax data.
Unusual-item file
0 positive explanation rows.
District-reported unusual revenue or appropriation explanations that may change the current-year story.
side-file explanationsUnusual rows can duplicate named revenue or appropriation rows and should not be added as a separate spending total.
Shared-services file
8 arrangement rows.
District-reported shared-service arrangements and optional savings fields.
shared-service profileReported savings are context rows, not audited offsets against the operating budget.
School-resource file
0 resource rows.
Published school-based resource statement rows where the district provides the side file.
school-resource rowsThese rows appear only for districts that publish the statement and can overlap with other operating rows.
Admin-salary file
7 listed salary rows; listed base salary total $958,751.
Selected administrative salary rows, FTE, shared-service flags, contract fields, and comments where published.
listed admin salariesThis is selected listed administration, not complete payroll or total compensation.
Presence in this inventory means the matched NJDOE User-Friendly Budget file includes usable rows for the latest budget year. Missing side-file rows may mean not published, not applicable, or no positive material entry; file coverage is evidence routing, not a fiscal total.
Statewide budget model
This district matches 1 generated statewide comparison frame. Those frames point to the fairest next comparison before reading every UFB source row.
$24,712Middle-of-pack statewide modelNone of the generated statewide budget-model thresholds dominate this district’s latest UFB row.Use the Somerset County districts peer evidence, category history, and named-line scans to find the more specific explanation.Statewide rank is 146 of 566 by NJDOE comparative cost.
Model thresholds mirror the statewide budget explorer where possible: funding shares, transfer pressure, school-based budgeting, small UFB on-roll, placement load, outside-operating scale, high tax effort, and real-dollar movement. Frames can overlap.
Statewide slice comparisons
These latest-year slices compare the district with statewide groups that share its funding model, UFB on-roll scale, cost position, or category signals. Published comparative cost is $24,712. UFB on-roll here is 674.
Relative-cost ladder
Comparison frame
Measure
District
Comparison avg
Gap
Rank
Somerset CountyThis is the closest local comparison frame before statewide slices.
Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712
$24,879
-$167
9 of 18
All NJ UFB districtsThis is the statewide baseline before narrowing to a more comparable slice.
Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712
$23,591
+$1,121
146 of 566
Middle-half comparative-cost districtsThis compares the district with others already in a similar published comparative-cost band.
Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712
$22,185
+$2,527
4 of 282
500-2,499 UFB on-roll districtsUFB on-roll scale helps separate fixed-cost pressure from large-system operating scale.
Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712
$22,956
+$1,756
60 of 268
Mostly locally funded districtsFunding model changes what a cost comparison means, because local levy, state aid, and other sources carry different reader questions.
Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712
$24,352
+$360
112 of 368
Read down the ladder before treating one rank as the story: local peers, all NJ, and overlapping statewide slices can point in different directions.
Rank 146 of 566All NJ UFB districtsComparative cost per pupil: $24,712, $1,121 above the NJ average ($23,591). Operating budget per UFB on-roll student: $27,251, $12,002 below the NJ average ($39,253). This is the statewide baseline before narrowing to a more comparable slice.566 districts have usable comparative cost per pupil values in this latest-year slice. Slice membership is latest-year and overlapping.
Rank 4 of 282Middle-half comparative-cost districtsComparative cost per pupil: $24,712, $2,527 above the slice average ($22,185). Operating budget per UFB on-roll student: $27,251, $750 above the slice average ($26,501). This compares the district with others already in a similar published comparative-cost band.282 districts have usable comparative cost per pupil values in this latest-year slice. Slice membership is latest-year and overlapping.
Rank 60 of 268500-2,499 UFB on-roll districtsComparative cost per pupil: $24,712, $1,756 above the slice average ($22,956). Operating budget per UFB on-roll student: $27,251, $630 below the slice average ($27,881). UFB on-roll scale helps separate fixed-cost pressure from large-system operating scale.268 districts have usable comparative cost per pupil values in this latest-year slice. Slice membership is latest-year and overlapping.
Rank 112 of 368Mostly locally funded districtsComparative cost per pupil: $24,712, $360 above the slice average ($24,352). Local operating revenue share: 84%, near the slice average (84%). Funding model changes what a cost comparison means, because local levy, state aid, and other sources carry different reader questions.368 districts have usable comparative cost per pupil values in this latest-year slice. Slice membership is latest-year and overlapping.
Slices are comparison frames, not causal peer cohorts. Districts can appear in several slices, and dollar figures in this panel are latest-year UFB dollars unless another section says it converts to real dollars.
Named similar-budget-model comps
The closest statewide comparison question is not only local geography. This screen names districts whose latest UFB profile is nearest on mostly locally funded, 500-2,499 UFB on-roll, general current expense centered, middle-half comparative cost, then keeps cost, funding, use, service, and tax clues in the same row.
mostly locally funded; general current expense centered (local 85%, state 6%)
sent placements 1% of UFB on-roll; special-ed planning 7%
These are algorithmic nearest neighbors across published latest-year UFB measures, not causal peers, targets, or quality ratings. The screen is meant to make statewide slice comparisons concrete before the report moves into local peer ranks and raw source rows.
What changed, and what drove it
This panel turns the first-to-latest UFB history into reporting leads: inflation-adjusted operating scale, denominator movement, peer-position change, source shifts, use shifts, and named rows.
+$1.0MOperating scaleAfter inflation, the proposed operating budget changed +$1,015,402 (6%) from 2019-20 to 2025-26. UFB on-roll changed +26 over the same span. Operating budget per UFB on-roll student changed +$474.Uses proposed operating budget converted to 2025 dollars and UFB planning enrollment, not fall enrollment.
+6 ptsOperating-use shiftGeneral current expense moved from 93% to >99% of the proposed operating budget, a real-dollar change of +$2,119,454.High-level use shares come from General Fund appropriation rows; nested lower-level rows are handled later in the category table.
-$20,101Operating-cost peer gapAgainst the Somerset County average, this gap moved from -$17,936 in 2019-20 to -$20,101 in 2025-26.Money values are inflation-adjusted to 2025 dollars; peer averages use Somerset County districts with usable rows in each year.
+4 ptsRevenue-source shiftState sources moved from 5% to 9% of the proposed operating budget, a real-dollar change of +$779,170.Revenue-source shares use the proposed operating budget as the denominator, so they describe operating structure rather than all-funds revenue.
+$1.1MLargest named-line increaseTotal Debt Service Funds rose from $0 to $1,128,369.This is a contextual appropriation row. Its operating-budget share changed +6 pts.
-$1.1MLargest named-line decreaseTotal Capital Outlay fell from $1,156,190 to $52,138.This is a contextual appropriation row. Its operating-budget share changed -6 pts.
This is not an additive budget bridge. UFB rows are contextual and sometimes nested, and loaded UFB year columns mix actual-cost, revised/original-budget, and proposed-budget bases.
Operating budget
$18.4 million
proposed General Fund, 2025-26
Per planning student
$27,251
operating budget divided by UFB on-roll
Peer cost rank
9 of 18
1 = highest comparative cost among Somerset County districts
Local sources
$15.4 million
84% of operating-budget scale
Top use family
33%
Instruction programs
Real per-student move
+$474
2019-20 to 2025-26, CPI-U adjusted
Budget report section
Reader questions
What should a resident ask before reading the row-level tables?
Budget walkthrough
Read the budget in five passes: money in, money out, costs and students, what changed, and which UFB side files deserve attention.
Money in
Local sources supplied 84% of the proposed operating budget, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.
Operating sources: local sources 84%, state sources 9%, fund balance / other 7%.
Tax levy: $15.2 million, or $22,538 per UFB on-roll student (7 of 18 locally).
Fund balance and reserve sources total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.
Money out
The largest high-level use is general current expense, $18.3 million or >99% of the operating budget.
General current expense: $18.3 million (>99%).
Capital outlay: $52,138 (<1%).
Nested detail row: regular programs instruction is $5.1 million (28% of operating budget; peer average 22%).
Nested detail row: employee benefits is $3.9 million (21% of operating budget; peer average 18%).
All-funds net spending is $19.7 million, $1.3 million above the operating budget.
Costs and students
NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712 per pupil, $167 below the Somerset County average (9 of 18 locally).
UFB on-roll planning enrollment is 674; fall enrollment on the district profile is 633.
Support services per pupil: $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average.
Operations and maintenance per pupil: $2,699, $294 below the Somerset County average.
What changed
Operating budget per UFB on-roll changed +$474 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Comparative cost per pupil changed +$1,743 after inflation.
Largest named-line increase: Total General Current Expense, up $2,119,454 in 2025 dollars.
Largest named-line decrease: Total Capital Outlay, down $1,104,052 in 2025 dollars.
Aggregate operating budget changed +$1,015,402 in real terms; read that scale check with the UFB on-roll denominator before treating it as the story.
Side files to check
Projected balance: Restricted-General Operating Budget: Capital Reserve at $1.1 million, +$10,000 versus the prior balance column.
Projected balance: Unrestricted-General Operating Budget at $345,086, -$380,001 versus the prior balance column.
Shared-service entries: 8, savings often not reported.
Listed administrative salary rows total $958,751 across 7 UFB rows.
This walkthrough uses the same generated measures as the tables below. It is an orientation layer, not a substitute for the UFB source rows.
Budget diagnostic
These generated checks turn the UFB source files into reader questions: cost position, funding model, spending mix, student-service load, inflation-adjusted movement, and side-file context.
Is this a size story or a cost story?
Comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average.
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average.
All-funds spending is $19.7 million, $1.3 million above the operating budget.
1% of operating dollars among Somerset County districts and 1% of UFB on-roll planning enrollment.
Comparative cost rank is 9 of 18 locally; statewide rank 146 of 566.
Who pays for the operating budget?
Largest operating source: local sources, 84% of operating revenue, 8 pts above the Somerset County average.
Operating-source mix: local sources 84%, state sources 9%, fund balance / other 7%.
Tax levy per UFB on-roll student is $22,538, rank 7 of 18 locally.
Estimated tax-rate file lists 1 municipal/regional slice; the highest total school-tax rate shown is 0.727 per $100 of valuation.
Fund balance and reserve withdrawals total $1.2 million; largest is budgeted fund balance at $1.2 million.
Where does the spending mix differ?
Largest high-level use: general current expense, >99% of the operating budget.
Employee benefits share: 21%, 3 pts above the Somerset County average; local rank 3 of 19.
What student-service load is budgeted?
Special-education on-roll planning share is 11%, 6 pts below the Somerset County average.
Largest NJDOE pupil-cost gap: support services per pupil at $3,954, $443 below the Somerset County average.
What changed after inflation?
Operating budget per UFB on-roll changed +$474 after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Comparative cost per pupil changed +$1,743 after inflation.
Largest named-line increase: Total General Current Expense, up $2,119,454 in 2025 dollars.
Largest named-line decrease: Total Capital Outlay, down $1,104,052 in 2025 dollars.
Aggregate operating budget changed +$1,015,402 in real terms; read that scale check with the UFB on-roll denominator before treating it as the story.
What one-time notes, balances, or side files matter?
Largest projected balance row: Restricted-General Operating Budget: Capital Reserve at $1.1 million.
Shared-service file lists 8 district-reported entries, with savings often not reported.
The diagnostics compare measures only where enough local peers have usable UFB values. Ranks and gaps are flags for reporting, not judgments about whether the spending is good or bad.
Budget report section
Proposal changes
What changed from revised/current to proposed, and which named rows explain the movement?
Current proposal changes
This section compares the latest UFB revised/current-budget column with the proposed-budget column. It answers what the proposal changes now, before the report turns to long-run inflation-adjusted trends.
+$1.1MOperating budgetThe proposed operating budget is +$1,103,190 (6%) versus the revised/current-budget column. The Somerset County average proposal change was 4% of proposed operating-budget scale.
+$1,536Comparative costNJDOE published comparative cost moved +$1,536 per pupil (7%) from the revised/current column to the proposed column. The Somerset County average change was +$934.
+$816KLargest revenue rowTotal tax levy changed +$816,202 from revised/current to proposed. Peer average proposal movement for the same row was 4% of operating scale.
+$1.1MLargest use rowGeneral current expense changed +$1,103,190 from revised/current to proposed. Peer average proposal movement for the same row was 5% of operating scale.
+6UFB on-rollUFB on-roll planning enrollment changed +6 (1%) from revised/current to proposed. The Somerset County average on-roll proposal change was 6%.
Revenue proposal changes
UFB row
Revised/current
Proposed
Change
Op. equiv.
Peer avg
Operating budgetUFB line 720
$17,263,878
$18,367,068
+$1,103,190
6%
4%
Total tax levyUFB line 114
$14,374,143
$15,190,345
+$816,202
4%
4%
Local sourcesUFB line 370
$14,651,143
$15,443,345
+$792,202
4%
5%
Budgeted fund balanceUFB line 580
$801,242
$1,224,847
+$423,605
2%
<1%
Federal sourcesUFB line 830
$303,795
$133,677
-$170,118
>-1%
>-1%
Special education aidUFB line 440
$807,647
$692,472
-$115,175
>-1%
<1%
IDEA Part BUFB line 805
$150,272
$105,190
-$45,082
>-1%
>-1%
Use proposal changes
UFB row
Revised/current
Proposed
Change
Op. equiv.
Peer avg
General current expenseUFB line 72260
$17,211,740
$18,314,930
+$1,103,190
6%
5%
Regular programs instructionUFB line 3200
$4,682,250
$5,096,201
+$413,951
2%
1%
Employee benefitsUFB line 71260
$3,456,517
$3,858,382
+$401,865
2%
2%
Operations and maintenanceUFB line 51120
$1,369,269
$1,584,364
+$215,095
1%
<1%
Special Revenue FundsUFB line 88760
$416,428
$208,677
-$207,751
-1%
>-1%
Instruction tuitionUFB line 29180
$598,667
$448,433
-$150,234
>-1%
<1%
Special education instructionUFB line 10300
$2,510,794
$2,603,332
+$92,538
<1%
<1%
Cost and student rows
UFB row
Revised/current
Proposed
Change
Peer avg
Comparative cost
$23,176
$24,712
+$1,536
+$934
On-roll, full
595
601
+6
6%
Special education on-roll, full
72
73
+1
3%
Classroom instruction
$14,498
$15,487
+$989
+$741
Classroom supplies and textbooks
$322
$726
+$404
+$43
Classroom salaries and benefits
$12,157
$12,512
+$355
+$697
Operations and maintenance
$2,367
$2,699
+$332
+$159
Classroom purchased services
$2,019
$2,249
+$230
+$0
Support services
$3,729
$3,954
+$225
+$69
Dollar rows are nominal latest-file dollars, not inflation-adjusted trend dollars. "Op. equiv." is the row change as a share of this district’s proposed operating budget; the peer average uses Somerset County districts with usable rows, so it is a scale comparison rather than an additive accounting bridge. Pupil-cost rows use NJDOE-published per-pupil lines, and enrollment rows are UFB planning enrollment, not fall enrollment.
Proposal package
The material named-row proposal scan has a net increase of +$3,423,581. The largest family in the package is Other named rows, with $1,471,091 of increases and $332,721 of reductions. Reductions in the same scan total $1,920,255 against $5,343,836 of increases.
Budget family
Increases
Reductions
Net scan
Peer net
Largest rows
Other named rows7 material named rows
$1,471,0918% of op. scale
$332,7212% of op. scale
+$1,138,370+6 pts of op. scale
+7 ptsSomerset County average
Total Revenues from Local Sources (Revenue, line 370, +$792,202)Total Revenues from Federal Sources (Revenue, line 830, -$170,118)
General current expense1 material named row
$1,103,1906% of op. scale
$00% of op. scale
+$1,103,190+6 pts of op. scale
+5 ptsSomerset County average
Total General Current Expense (Appropriation, line 72260, +$1,103,190)No material reduction in this family.
Local taxes and local sources3 material named rows
$941,9815% of op. scale
$37,633<1% of op. scale
+$904,348+5 pts of op. scale
+4 ptsSomerset County average
Total Tax Levy (Revenue, line 100/114, +$816,202)Other Revenue from Local Sources (Revenue, line 740, -$37,633)
Instruction programs3 material named rows
$563,1273% of op. scale
$00% of op. scale
+$563,127+3 pts of op. scale
+2 ptsSomerset County average
Total Regular Programs-Instruction (Appropriation, line 3200, +$413,951)No material reduction in this family.
Fund balance and reserves1 material named row
$423,6052% of op. scale
$00% of op. scale
+$423,605+2 pts of op. scale
-1 ptSomerset County average
Budgeted Fund Balance-Operating Budget (Revenue, line 580, +$423,605)No material reduction in this family.
Special revenue funds2 material named rows
$00% of op. scale
$415,5022% of op. scale
-$415,502-2 pts of op. scale
-1 ptSomerset County average
No material increase in this family.Total Special Revenue Funds (Appropriation, line 88760, -$207,751)
Employee benefits1 material named row
$401,8652% of op. scale
$00% of op. scale
+$401,865+2 pts of op. scale
+2 ptsSomerset County average
Total Personal Services-Employee Benefits (Appropriation, line 71260, +$401,865)No material reduction in this family.
Capital, facilities, and debt3 material named rows
$00% of op. scale
$360,2892% of op. scale
-$360,289-2 pts of op. scale
-2 ptsSomerset County average
No material increase in this family.Debt Service Aid Type II (Revenue, line 890, -$203,949)
This panel groups material named UFB proposal-row movement between the revised/current and proposed columns. Dollar changes are nominal latest-file dollars. Increases, reductions, and net scan values are a reporting summary of contextual source rows, not a balanced accounting bridge, because UFB rows can be nested, repeated, subtotals, or outside the operating fund. Peer net is the average same-family net movement as a share of proposed operating budget among Somerset County districts with usable rows.
Named-line proposal drivers
This table scans the latest UFB revenue and appropriation files for named rows that changed between the revised/current-budget and proposed-budget columns. It gives the proposal story row names after the standardized summary rows above.
The largest named increase in this all-line scan is Total General Current Expense, up $1,103,190 in the appropriation file. The largest named reduction is Total Special Revenue Funds, down $207,751 in the appropriation file.
UFB row
Revised/current
Proposed
Change
Op. equiv.
Peer avg
Total General Current ExpenseUse | Subtotal | UFB line 72260 | Acct. '
$17,211,740
$18,314,930
+$1,103,190
6%
5%n=19
Total Tax LevyRevenue | Subtotal | UFB line 100/114 | Acct. '10-1210
$14,374,143
$15,190,345
+$816,202
4%
4%n=17
Total Revenues from Local SourcesRevenue | Subtotal | UFB line 370 | Acct. '
$14,651,143
$15,443,345
+$792,202
4%
5%n=18
Total Undistributed ExpendituresUse | Subtotal | UFB line 72140 | Acct. '
$9,708,004
$10,261,114
+$553,110
3%
3%n=19
Budgeted Fund Balance-Operating BudgetRevenue | Account row | UFB line 580 | Acct. '10-303
$801,242
$1,224,847
+$423,605
2%
<1%n=16
Total Regular Programs-InstructionUse | Subtotal | UFB line 3200 | Acct. '11-1XX-100-XX
$4,682,250
$5,096,201
+$413,951
2%
1%n=18
Total Personal Services-Employee BenefitsUse | Subtotal | UFB line 71260 | Acct. '11-XXX-XXX-2X
$3,456,517
$3,858,382
+$401,865
2%
2%n=19
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Operation and Maintenance of Plant ServicesUse | Subtotal | UFB line 51120 | Acct. '11-000-26X-XX
$1,369,269
$1,584,364
+$215,095
1%
<1%n=19
Total Special Revenue FundsUse | Subtotal | UFB line 88760 | Acct. '
$416,428
$208,677
-$207,751
-1%
>-1%n=19
Total Grants and EntitlementsRevenue | Subtotal | UFB line 840 | Acct. '
$416,428
$208,677
-$207,751
-1%
>-1%n=19
Debt Service Aid Type IIRevenue | Account row | UFB line 890 | Acct. '40-3160
$566,548
$362,599
-$203,949
-1%
>-1%n=10
Total Federal ProjectsUse | Subtotal | UFB line 88740 | Acct. '20-XXX-XXX-XX
$303,795
$133,677
-$170,118
>-1%
>-1%n=19
Total Revenues from Federal SourcesRevenue | Subtotal | UFB line 830 | Acct. '
$303,795
$133,677
-$170,118
>-1%
>-1%n=19
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Instruction (Tuition)Use | Subtotal | UFB line 29180 | Acct. '11-000-100-XX
$598,667
$448,433
-$150,234
>-1%
<1%n=17
Dollar changes are nominal latest-file dollars. "Op. equiv." is the row change as a share of this district's proposed operating budget. The peer average is the same source row among Somerset County districts with usable changed rows, not a target. Subtotal rows and detail rows can overlap, rows can move because a grant or fund section is being closed out, and these rows are evidence for reporting questions rather than an additive accounting bridge.
Budget report section
Peer evidence
Where does this district sit among local peers, named neighbors, and peer trends?
Local peer evidence
Each strip shows one generated budget measure across Somerset County districts. Gray dots are peer districts, the accent dot is this district, and the dashed mark is the Somerset County average. Each row uses its own scale so the reader can see the local distribution behind the rank and gap; higher values are not automatically better or worse.
Named peer context
These markers name the Somerset County districts around this district, so a rank or average can be checked against specific local districts rather than anonymous dots alone.
Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712Rank 9 of 18; -$167 vs Somerset County average.
Each measure keeps its own unit and denominator. "Next higher" and "next lower" mean numerically higher or lower on that measure, not better or worse; links open the named district budget report when available.
Local comparison roster
This roster names 19 rows in the local peer set behind averages and ranks for Somerset County districts. 18 have a usable NJDOE comparative-cost value; this district is 9 of 18 on that published cost line at $24,712.
This is the local comparison universe used elsewhere in this report when the Somerset County average is available. Comparative cost is NJDOE's published per-pupil line, not operating budget divided by enrollment. UFB on-roll is the planning-enrollment denominator, and operating budget is proposed General Fund operating scale; the funding-model column uses proposed General Fund operating revenue shares, not all-funds revenue.
Current operating mix versus peers
These stacked bars put the latest operating-budget composition beside the Somerset County average before the report moves into row-level trends. They answer a narrower question than the cost trend: whether this district funds or uses its operating budget differently from local peers.
Operating revenue sources
State sources: 9% here versus 19% for the county avg, a -10 pts gap.
Local sourcesState sourcesFederal sourcesFund balance / other
General Fund operating revenue sources, not all-funds revenue or tax bills. Peer bar is the unweighted average among 19 local peer rows with usable latest-year mix data.
High-level operating uses
General current expense: 100% here versus 95% for the county avg, a +4 pts gap.
General current expenseCharter / renaissance transfersCapital outlay
High-level General Fund appropriation rows; lower-level rows can be nested. Peer bar is the unweighted average among 19 local peer rows with usable latest-year mix data.
All shares use the latest proposed General Fund operating budget as the denominator. The comparison is a local peer benchmark, not a target, adequacy finding, accounting bridge, or proof that any category is discretionary.
Position over time
Measure
First peer gap
Latest peer gap
Gap movement
Comparative cost per pupil
2019-20: -$464
2025-26: -$167
+$298
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student
2019-20: -$17,936
2025-26: -$20,101
-$2,165
Support services per pupil
2019-20: +$113
2025-26: -$443
-$556
State operating revenue share
2019-20: -10 pts
2025-26: -11 pts
-1 pt
Classroom instruction per pupil
2019-20: +$80
2025-26: +$1,216
+$1,136
Each row tracks this district against the Somerset County average for a selected UFB measure. Money measures are converted to 2025 dollars; percentage measures keep their stated UFB denominators. Rows use independent zoomed axes, so compare the labeled gaps and the table rather than comparing vertical distance across different measures.
Current operating revenue mix
Local sourcesState sourcesFund balance / other
This bar shows proposed General Fund operating revenue sources for the latest UFB year. It is not an all-funds revenue mix.
Budget report section
Trends and inflation
After inflation, what changed in scale, per-student cost, funding mix, and named lines?
Budget turning points
The largest surfaced annual turn is the source-family turn in 2023-24 to 2024-25. This table looks at consecutive loaded UFB years, so the question is when a budget signal changed after inflation, versus peers, or against its denominator; ordinary nominal growth stays background.
Turn
Signal
How to read it
Check next
Real per-student cost turn2022-23 to 2023-24
-$3,851Operating budget per UFB on-roll student moved -$3,851 in 2025 dollars. UFB planning on-roll moved +98 students in the same window.
This names the annual period where real operating scale per planning student moved most; it does not prove service quality, efficiency, or program cause.
+$1,873,757Capital, facilities, and debt moved +$1,873,757 after inflation (+10 pts of operating scale). Largest latest row: Total Debt Service Funds.
This groups selected UFB revenue and appropriation rows into a reporting family. Rows can be nested, so use it as a route to proof, not an additive accounting bridge.
This is a denominator and service-load signal. It can change the per-student read, but it is not by itself proof of service expansion, contraction, or need.
Annual turns compare adjacent loaded User-Friendly Budget years. Money movements are converted to 2025 dollars with BLS CPI-U annual averages; peer gaps use the same local peer trend basis as the position-over-time panel. Mixed units are intentionally kept in a table so source families, named rows, peer gaps, payer mix, and student-load signals are not read as one additive scale.
The latest 2025-26 file does not carry one clean time series. It carries two actual-cost columns, original and revised/current budget columns for the prior budget year, and the proposed-budget column. Compared with the latest actual-cost column (2023-24), the proposed comparative cost is +$2,128 in 2025 dollars. Compared with the revised/current budget column (2024-25), the proposed column is +$1,536 in nominal UFB dollars.
School year
UFB basis
Published comparative cost
2025 dollars
How to use it
2022-23Year 1
Actual cost
$18,924
$20,818
First actual-cost column in the latest UFB file.
2023-24Year 2
Actual cost
$21,375
$22,584
Second actual-cost column in the latest UFB file.
2024-25Year 3
Original budget
$21,691
$22,262
Original budget column for the year before the proposed budget.
2024-25Year 4
Revised/current budget
$23,176
$23,786
Revised or current budget column for the year before the proposed budget.
2025-26Year 5
Proposed budget
$24,712
$24,712
Proposed budget column for the latest UFB year.
These are NJDOE-published comparative-cost rows from the latest UFB file. The 2025-dollar column is an interpretation aid using BLS CPI-U annual averages; it does not turn original, revised/current, and proposed budget columns into audited actual spending, and it should not be mixed with the nominal revised/current-to-proposed proposal tables.
Per-student cost change anatomy
The main arithmetic driver was the budget numerator: latest real operating dollars add $1,567 per UFB on-roll student before denominator movement is applied.
+$474Per-student movement Operating budget per UFB on-roll moved from $26,777 to $27,251 after inflation.
+$1,567Budget numerator effect Latest real operating dollars against 2019-20 UFB on-roll isolate the budget-size effect.
-$1,093Enrollment denominator effect Switching to 2025-26 UFB on-roll shows whether enrollment amplified or dampened the change.
Local peer gap. Operating per UFB on-roll was -$20,101 versus the Somerset County average in 2025-26; the gap moved -$2,165 since 2019-20.
Arithmetic bridge
Step
Per-student value
Interpretation
Starting point, 2019-20
$26,777
Real operating budget divided by first-year UFB on-roll.
Budget numerator effect
+$1,567
Move to 2025-26 real operating dollars while holding 2019-20 UFB on-roll constant.
Enrollment denominator effect
-$1,093
Then move from 648 to 674 UFB on-roll students.
Ending point, 2025-26
$27,251
The district’s latest real operating budget per UFB on-roll student.
Underlying measures
Measure
2019-20
2025-26
Change
Operating budget
$17,351,666
$18,367,068
+$1,015,402 6%
UFB on-roll planning enrollment
648
674
+26 4%
Operating per UFB on-roll
$26,777
$27,251
+$474
Somerset County average op. per UFB on-roll
$44,714
$47,352
+$2,639
NJDOE comparative cost per pupil
$22,969
$24,712
+$1,743
Named rows to check against the numerator
The numerator effect is a net scale check. These are the largest inflation-adjusted named UFB row movements to inspect against it; rows can be contextual or nested.
UFB row
2019-20
2025-26
Real change
Total Debt Service FundsAppropriation
$0
$1,128,369
+$1,128,369
Total Repayment of DebtRevenue
$0
$1,128,369
+$1,128,369
Total Special Education-InstructionAppropriation
$1,476,496
$2,603,332
+$1,126,836
Total Capital OutlayAppropriation
$1,156,190
$52,138
-$1,104,052
This is arithmetic decomposition, not causal modeling. It uses proposed operating budget converted to 2025 dollars and UFB on-roll planning enrollment. Operating budget per UFB on-roll is a scale check; it does not replace NJDOE’s published comparative-cost line, and UFB planning enrollment can differ from fall enrollment.
Operating funding shift
Operating-source movement is mixed. State sources moved from 5% to 9% of proposed operating funding, +4 pts from 2019-20 to 2025-26. In the latest file, the biggest local peer gap was state sources, -10 pts versus the Somerset County average.
Mixed shiftFunding-model signalClassification from first-to-latest operating-source share movement.
+4 ptsLargest share movementState sources, share of proposed operating budget.
+$779,170Largest real-dollar movementState sources, converted to 2025 dollars.
-10 ptsLatest local peer gapState sources, this district minus the Somerset County average.
Local sourcesState sourcesFederal sourcesFund balance / other
Operating source
2019-20 share
2025-26 share
Share move
Real source move
Somerset County average
Latest peer gap
State sources
5%
9%
+4 pts
+$779,170
19%
-10 pts
Local sources
87%
84%
-3 pts
+$338,896
76%
+8 pts
Fund balance / other
8%
7%
-1 pt
-$102,663
<1%
+7 pts
Federal sources
0%
0%
0 pts
$0
1%
-1 pt
Operating revenue here means General Fund operating revenue in the UFB summary, not all-funds revenue. Shares use each UFB year's proposed operating budget as the denominator; real-dollar movement converts source dollars to 2025 dollars with CPI-U. The fund balance / other bucket is a funding-model signal, while named fund-balance, reserve, and carryover source rows are separated in the source-history panel below.
Loaded-year budget ledger
From 2019-20 to 2025-26, operating budget +$1,015,402; operating per on-roll +$474 in 2025 dollars.
Year
Operating budget
UFB on-roll
Op./on-roll
Peer op./on-roll
Comparative cost
Peer comp. cost
Funding mix
Largest use
2019-20
$17,351,666
648
$26,777
$44,714
$22,969
$23,433
local 87% / state 5%
General current expense 93%
2020-21
$16,752,226
615
$27,239
$46,916
$24,004
$23,856
local 91% / state 6%
General current expense 97%
2021-22
$16,154,093
596
$27,104
$43,897
$24,262
$24,179
local 92% / state 6%
General current expense >99%
2022-23
$16,383,587
615
$26,640
$48,430
$22,627
$23,368
local 86% / state 7%
General current expense 95%
2023-24
$16,248,640
713
$22,789
$51,461
$20,334
$23,079
local 85% / state 9%
General current expense >99%
2024-25
$17,708,306
704
$25,154
$46,723
$22,262
$23,677
local 85% / state 9%
General current expense >99%
2025-26
$18,367,068
674
$27,251
$47,352
$24,712
$24,879
local 84% / state 9%
General current expense >99%
Money columns are converted to 2025 dollars using BLS CPI-U annual averages. Peer columns use the Somerset County average when at least six local peer districts have usable UFB rows for that year. On-roll is UFB planning enrollment, not fall enrollment; UFB year columns mix actual-cost, revised/original-budget, and proposed-budget bases.
Fund balance and reserve source history
In the latest UFB proposal columns, named fund-balance, reserve, and carryover source rows move +$423,605 from current/revised to proposed (+2 pts of operating scale). Latest named source rows total $1,224,847, 7% of operating-budget scale. For scale, local, state, and federal operating-revenue summaries excluding the other/fund-balance bucket equal 93% of operating-budget scale. The named-source-row scale is +1 pt versus the Somerset County average. After inflation, the named-source-row total changed -$215,326 from 2019-20 to 2025-26 (-2 pts of operating scale). Largest latest row: Budgeted fund balance, $1,224,847. Largest proposal-column movement: Budgeted fund balance, +$423,605.
Budgeted fund balance
How much of the operating budget is supported by prior-year balance?
Latest source$1,224,8477% op. equiv.Peer avg4%+3 pts vs peersProposal move+$423,605+2 pts vs currentReal movement+$855,059+5 pts op. shift
Latest source rowLine 580; current/revised $801,242 to proposed $1,224,847
Budgeted fund balance is a planned source row. It is not, by itself, proof of a structural deficit or a cash-balance claim.
Capital reserve, local share
Are capital-reserve withdrawals part of the local source picture?
Latest source$00% op. equiv.Peer avg1%-1 pt vs peersProposal moven/an/a vs currentReal movement-$1,070,386-6 pts op. shift
Latest source rowLine 600; latest proposed $0
Capital-reserve rows often relate to capital projects or local share; keep them separate from recurring classroom operations.
Rows are named UFB revenue-source rows for fund balance, reserve withdrawals, and carryover. They are contextual source rows, not audited cash, recurring revenue, an additive funding bridge, or proof of structural imbalance. Latest source and peer average are scaled to each district's proposed operating budget. Proposal movement uses the latest UFB current/revised and proposed columns. Real movement compares 2019-20 with 2025-26 in 2025 dollars, with operating-equivalent shares using each year's proposed operating budget. Peer avg is the Somerset County average where at least six local peer districts have usable revenue rows.
Named-line history evidence
Total Capital Outlay
Appropriation row · mostly falling in real dollars
2019-20$1.2M7% op.
2020-21$452K3% op.
2021-22$94,632<1% op.
2022-23$770K5% op.
2023-24$60,371<1% op.
2024-25$53,510<1% op.
2025-26$52,138<1% op.
Total Debt Service Funds
Appropriation row · appeared after the first loaded year
2019-20$00% op.
2020-21$00% op.
2021-22$00% op.
2022-23$00% op.
2023-24$588K4% op.
2024-25$1.2M7% op.
2025-26$1.1M6% op.
Total Repayment of Debt
Revenue row · appeared after the first loaded year
2019-20$00% op.
2020-21$00% op.
2021-22$00% op.
2022-23$00% op.
2023-24$588K4% op.
2024-25$1.2M7% op.
2025-26$1.1M6% op.
Total Facilities Acquisition and Construction Services
Appropriation row · mostly falling in real dollars
2019-20$1.1M7% op.
2020-21$429K3% op.
2021-22$56,005<1% op.
2022-23$759K5% op.
2023-24$49,805<1% op.
2024-25$48,378<1% op.
2025-26$47,138<1% op.
Withdrawal from Capital Reserve for Local Share
Revenue row · fell to no positive latest-year row
2019-20$1.1M6% op.
2020-21$00% op.
2021-22$00% op.
2022-23$00% op.
2023-24$00% op.
2024-25$00% op.
2025-26$00% op.
Total Special Education-Instruction
Appropriation row · mostly rising in real dollars
2019-20$1.5M9% op.
2020-21$1.9M11% op.
2021-22$2.2M14% op.
2022-23$2.1M13% op.
2023-24$2.0M12% op.
2024-25$2.5M14% op.
2025-26$2.6M14% op.
Rows are selected from the strongest contextual named-line movers in this district report. Amounts are converted to 2025 dollars; the smaller note in each year is the row as a share of that year's proposed operating budget. A $0 cell means the source row had no positive proposed amount in that loaded UFB year. Rows are source-file evidence and can be nested, so they should not be added together.
Operating revenue mix over time
Local sourcesState sourcesFund balance / other
Each stacked bar shows operating revenue sources as a share of that UFB year’s proposed operating budget. The categories are operating-fund sources, not all-funds revenue. UFB year columns mix actual-cost, revised/original-budget, and proposed-budget bases, so use the bars as a structural trend, not an audited year-over-year bridge.
Operating use mix over time
General current expenseCapital outlay
Each stacked bar shows high-level General Fund appropriation rows as shares of that UFB year’s proposed operating budget. The chart uses only rows that can be treated as high-level operating uses; detailed rows below are nested and non-additive. UFB year columns mix actual-cost, revised/original-budget, and proposed-budget bases, so use the bars as a structural trend, not an audited year-over-year bridge.
This districtSomerset County average
Budget report section
Categories and lines
Which spending categories, budget families, and source rows are large or unusual?
Budget family context matrix
Largest current family signal: General current expense, $18,314,930 or 100% of operating-budget scale. Largest real movement: General current expense, +$2,119,454 from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Widest peer gap: Local taxes and local sources, 13 pts above the Somerset County average.
Family and source row
Latest scale
Peer gap
Real movement
General current expense1 latest rowsLargest latest rowTotal General Current ExpenseAppropriation line 72260 · $18,314,930
100%$18,314,930
+4 ptspeer avg 95%
+$2,119,454+6 pts op. shift
Local taxes and local sources3 latest rowsLargest latest rowTotal Tax LevyRevenue line 100/114 · $15,190,345
Transfers and tuition2 latest rowsLargest latest rowTotal Undistributed Expenditures-Instruction (Tuition)Appropriation line 29180 · $448,433
4%$676,433
-11 ptspeer avg 14%
-$161,456-1 pt op. shift
Plant, operations, and maintenance1 latest rowsLargest latest rowTotal Undistributed Expenditures-Operation and Maintenance of Plant ServicesAppropriation line 51120 · $1,584,364
9%$1,584,364
0 ptspeer avg 8%
+$277,324+1 pt op. shift
This matrix ranks the highest-signal UFB families for this district. Latest scale is 2025-26 source-row dollars divided by proposed operating budget; peer gap uses the same denominator against the Somerset County average; real movement compares 2019-20 with 2025-26 in 2025 dollars. Bars are scaled separately within each metric column. Families are contextual, nested source-row groups, not an additive accounting schedule.
Named family peer context
This names the local districts nearest this district on selected source-family shares, so category claims can be checked against specific peers rather than only the Somerset County average.
Family and source row
This district
Named local checks
Local range
Local taxes and local sourcesHow much of the budget story is local levy, tuition, fees, or miscellaneous local revenue?Total Tax LevyRevenue line 100/114; $15,190,345
87%$15,976,115; rank 9 of 19+13 pts vs Somerset County average (74%)
General current expenseHow much of the operating story sits in the broad current-expense row before lower-level categories are inspected?Total General Current ExpenseAppropriation line 72260; $18,314,930
100%$18,314,930; rank 2 of 19+4 pts vs Somerset County average (95%)
Manville Boro100% to North Plainfield Boro81%General current expense is a high-level operating row; lower-level rows inside it can overlap and should not be added back to it.
Instruction programsWhich classroom or instructional program rows define the core spending structure?Total Regular Programs-InstructionAppropriation line 3200; $5,096,201
33%$6,099,492; rank 7 of 19+3 pts vs Somerset County average (30%)
Manville Boro71% to Somerset Co Ed Serv Comm3%Includes aid rows other than preschool-specific rows, which are separated because they often move as a program block.
Special education and student supportsAre special education, child study, therapies, guidance, or student supports driving the budget question?Total Special Education-InstructionAppropriation line 10300; $2,603,332
21%$3,887,768; rank 3 of 19+6 pts vs Somerset County average (15%)
Shares use 2025-26 source-family dollars divided by each district’s proposed operating budget. "Next higher" and "next lower" are numerically higher or lower on that same share, not better or worse. Families are contextual, nested UFB source-row groups, so read named peers as reporting checks rather than an additive accounting schedule.
Category history and peer scale
Core instruction rows sits 10 pts above the Somerset County average. General current expense changed +$2,119,454 in real dollars from 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Budget category
Layer
Latest amount
Latest op. equiv.
Peer avg
Share change
Real $ change
General current expense
High-level operating use
$18,314,930
100%
95%
+6 pts
+$2,119,454
Charter / Renaissance transfers
High-level operating use
$0
0%
<1%
0 pts
$0
Capital outlay
High-level operating use
$52,138
<1%
4%
-6 pts
-$1,104,052
Core instruction rows
Nested cost row
$7,953,376
43%
33%
+4 pts
+$1,190,852
Student supports and services
Nested cost row
$1,284,436
7%
7%
-2 pts
-$196,719
Instruction tuition
Nested cost row
$448,433
2%
9%
-1 pt
-$203,083
Administration and central services
Nested cost row
$1,177,670
6%
6%
-1 pt
-$90,018
Operations and maintenance
Nested cost row
$1,584,364
9%
8%
+1 pt
+$277,324
Student transportation
Nested cost row
$1,210,696
7%
9%
+3 pts
+$550,903
Employee benefits
Nested cost row
$3,858,382
21%
18%
+2 pts
+$536,102
Special Revenue Funds
Outside-operating scale
$208,677
1%
3%
0 pts
+$8,596
Debt Service Funds
Outside-operating scale
$1,128,369
6%
3%
+6 pts
+$1,128,369
Rows mix high-level operating uses, nested lower-level cost rows, and outside-operating scale rows, so do not add them. Latest op. equiv., peer avg, and share change use proposed operating budget as the denominator. Real-dollar change is from 2019-20 to 2025-26 in 2025 dollars. Peer avg is the Somerset County average where at least six local peer districts have usable UFB rows.
Budget family lens
Largest family-level source-row signal: General current expense, $18,314,930 or 100% of operating-budget scale. Largest first-to-latest real movement: General current expense, +$2,119,454 in 2025 dollars. Widest local peer gap: Local taxes and local sources, 13 pts above the Somerset County average on the same operating-scale basis.
General current expense
How much of the operating story sits in the broad current-expense row before lower-level categories are inspected?
Preschool rows can appear in revenue and appropriation files and can be outside ordinary K-12 comparisons.
This groups contextual UFB revenue and appropriation rows into the same reader-facing families used by the statewide budget explorer. Latest scale uses 2025-26 proposed source-row dollars divided by proposed operating budget; real movement compares 2019-20 with 2025-26 in 2025 dollars. Peer avg is the Somerset County average where at least six local peer districts have usable UFB rows. Families are reporting lenses over nested source rows, not additive accounting schedules.
Budget lines that moved
UFB row
Type
2019-20
2025-26
Real change
Op. share change
Total General Current Expense
Appropriation
$16,195,476
$18,314,930
+$2,119,454
+6 pts
Total Capital Outlay
Appropriation
$1,156,190
$52,138
-$1,104,052
-6 pts
Total Debt Service Funds
Appropriation
$0
$1,128,369
+$1,128,369
+6 pts
Total Repayment of Debt
Revenue
$0
$1,128,369
+$1,128,369
+6 pts
Total Facilities Acquisition and Construction Services
Appropriation
$1,129,745
$47,138
-$1,082,607
-6 pts
Withdrawal from Capital Reserve for Local Share
Revenue
$1,070,386
$0
-$1,070,386
-6 pts
Total Special Education-Instruction
Appropriation
$1,476,496
$2,603,332
+$1,126,836
+6 pts
Budgeted Fund Balance-Operating Budget
Revenue
$369,788
$1,224,847
+$855,059
+5 pts
Local Tax Levy
Revenue
$0
$765,770
+$765,770
+4 pts
Total Revenues from Local Sources
Revenue
$0
$765,770
+$765,770
+4 pts
Ranked contextual UFB revenue and appropriation rows by movement from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Amounts are inflation-adjusted to 2025 dollars using BLS CPI-U annual averages. Rows are selected and often nested, so they do not add to a complete budget; the UFB year columns also mix actual-cost, revised/original-budget, and proposed-budget bases.
Budget report section
Costs and students
Which denominator, service-load, need, labor, and pupil-cost rows change the per-student read?
Cost basis reconciliation
The cost story changes by basis: NJDOE comparative cost is $24,712, $167 below the Somerset County average, while operating budget per UFB on-roll is $27,251, $20,101 below the Somerset County average. A rank claim should name which numerator and denominator produced it.
Per-student basis
This district
Local peer read
What it means
NJDOE comparative cost per pupil
$24,712
$167 below the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: $24,879; rank 9 of 18.
Published NJDOE comparative-cost line. The report does not recompute it from operating dollars or enrollment.
Operating budget per UFB on-roll
$27,251
$20,101 below the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: $47,352; rank 12 of 19.
Proposed General Fund operating budget divided by UFB planning on-roll. This is a scale check, not the NJDOE comparative-cost line.
Operating budget per fall-enrolled student
$29,016
$603 below the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: $29,618; rank 13 of 19.
Proposed operating budget divided by NJDOE fall enrollment on the district profile. The local average is aggregate-weighted so tiny fall denominators do not dominate; this does not replace NJDOE’s cost metric.
All-funds net spending per UFB on-roll
$29,235
$20,222 below the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: $49,457; rank 12 of 19.
All-funds net spending divided by UFB planning on-roll. Includes outside-operating rows such as grants, debt, or capital and should not be read as recurring operating cost.
Tax levy per UFB on-roll
$22,538
$543 below the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: $23,081; rank 7 of 18.
Local funding pressure per planning student. This is not a spending-cost metric and is not tax-bill advice.
Use this panel before comparing per-pupil figures: the same district can look high, low, or ordinary depending on whether the report is using NJDOE comparative cost, operating budget, fall enrollment, all-funds totals, or tax levy.
Student flow and money path
The budget route map puts the cost question into reader terms: received-from-other-district rows equal 4% of UFB on-roll. Dollar rows use operating-budget shares; student-flow rows use UFB planning-enrollment shares, so the table keeps the evidence separate instead of adding it together.
Path
Latest scale
Local peer read
Read as
General current expense
$18.3 million (100% of operating)
4 pts above the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: 95%; rank 2 of 19.
The broad district-run operating base. Lower-level instructional, support, benefits, operations, and administrative rows can sit inside or beside this accounting path.
School-based budgeting
no positive latest row
near the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: 0%; rank 1 of 19.
A published school-resource allocation path, where present. It is not an added cost on top of the same operating budget without reading the source rows.
Charter / Renaissance transfers
no positive latest row
1 pt below the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: <1%; rank 12 of 19.
Operating dollars routed to charter or Renaissance rows. Read beside resident enrollment, district-run enrollment, and charter/Renaissance context before making a classroom-spending claim.
Special-education planning load
73 (11% of UFB on-roll)
6 pts below the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: 17%; rank 18 of 19.
A UFB planning-enrollment load, not a fall-enrollment count. Use with pupil-cost rows, tuition, transportation, staffing, and services before assigning a cost gap to one cause.
Received from other districts
28 (4% of UFB on-roll)
4 pts below the Somerset County average; Somerset County average: 8%; rank 6 of 19.
A receiving-service path that can change the fair denominator. Read with tuition or receiving-revenue rows before treating resident-based cost comparisons as complete.
This panel is a reporting map for Somerset County districts comparisons: dollar paths use proposed General Fund operating-budget scale, while service paths use UFB planning-enrollment rows. It does not claim that these rows add to one total.
Fall enrollment and student need
This section keeps the student denominator beside the budget rows: UFB planning enrollment, fall enrollment, per-student scale checks, and latest fall-enrollment need rows for the same local peer frame.
+41Enrollment basisUFB planning on-roll is 674, while fall enrollment is 633. Cost rows in the UFB report use planning-enrollment bases; the fall row is context for the students counted on the district profile.
0%Student needThe free/reduced-price lunch share is 0% of fall enrollment, -28 pts versus the Somerset County average. Local rank is 20 of 20.
$29,016Fall-student scaleOperating budget per fall-enrolled student is $603 below the Somerset County average. Local rank is 13 of 19.
Denominator context
Measure
This district
Local context
Read as
Fall enrollment
633
1% of peer fall enrollment
NJDOE fall enrollment count used on the district profile.
UFB planning on-roll
674
106% of fall enrollment
+41 versus fall
Operating budget per UFB on-roll
$27,251
$47,352
$20,101 below the Somerset County average
Operating budget per fall-enrolled student
$29,016
$29,618
$603 below the Somerset County average
Student-need context
Fall row
Count
Share
Local avg / rank
Gap
Free/reduced-price lunch
0
0%
28% · rank 20 of 20
-28 pts
Multilingual learners
25
4%
9% · rank 12 of 19
-5 pts
Students experiencing homelessness
0
0%
<1% · rank 15 of 19
0 pts
Fall rows come from NJDOE Fall Enrollment; UFB on-roll rows come from the NJDOE User-Friendly Budget enrollment file. Operating budget per fall-enrolled student is a scale check for interpretation, not a replacement for NJDOE's published comparative-cost measure.
Service-load and denominator history
Latest UFB planning on-roll is 674. From 2019-20 to 2025-26, that denominator changed +26 (+4%). Latest planning-load shares: special education 11%, received-from-other-district rows 4% of UFB on-roll. Largest latest service-load category: Special-education on-roll, 11% of on-roll. Largest count movement: Net interdistrict flow, +28.
Special-education on-roll
How much of the UFB planning denominator is special education?
Latest load7311% of on-rollPeer avg19%-8 pts vs peersCount movement-26-4 pts on-roll shift
Latest source rowsfull: 73
This is a planning-enrollment row, not a fall enrollment special-education count.
Net interdistrict flow
Is the district a net sender or receiver in other-district planning rows?
Latest load+284% of on-rollPeer avg-3%+7 pts vs peersCount movement+28+4 pts on-roll shift
Latest source rowsreceived: 28
Received-from-other-district minus sent-to-other-district rows; private and preschool placements are separate.
Received from other districts
Is this district serving students from outside its resident base?
Latest load284% of on-rollPeer avg8%-4 pts vs peersCount movement+28+4 pts on-roll shift
Latest source rowsreceived from other districts: 28
Receiving rows can make resident-based cost comparisons misleading without tuition and service context.
Sent placements
How many students are budgeted outside the district-run setting?
Latest load00% of on-rollPeer avg12%-12 pts vs peersCount movement-6-1 pt on-roll shift
Combines regular and special-education sent-to-other-district UFB planning rows.
Rows use the UFB budget-enrollment planning file across loaded years, not NJDOE fall enrollment. Latest load and peer average are scaled to each district's UFB planning on-roll. Count movement compares 2019-20 with 2025-26. Peer avg is the Somerset County average where at least six local peer districts have usable planning rows. These rows explain the cost denominator and service-load context; they do not replace NJDOE's published comparative-cost measure.
Labor, benefits, and listed salaries
This section pulls together salary-bearing pupil-cost rows, the employee-benefits appropriation row, and the selected administrative salary side file so labor-cost signals can be read before the raw source tables.
$958,751Administrative salary fileThe UFB salary side file lists 7 selected administrative base-salary rows; highest listed role is Superintendent at $193,800.
21%Benefits rowEmployee benefits are 21% of operating-budget scale, 3 pts above the Somerset County average; local rank 3 of 19.
41.77%Benefit loadNJDOE reports benefits at 41.77% of salaries, 5 pts above the Somerset County average.
$12,512Salary-bearing cost rowClassroom salaries and benefits is $683 below the Somerset County average.
Salary and benefit pupil-cost rows
NJDOE pupil-cost row
This district
Peer avg
Gap
Classroom salaries and benefits
$12,512
$13,195
-$683
Support services salaries and benefits
$3,441
$3,697
-$256
Operations and maintenance salaries and benefits
$1,183
$1,335
-$152
Administration salaries and benefits
$2,114
$2,104
+$10
Benefits as % of salaries
41.77%
36.73%
+5 pts
Operating and side-file context
Measure
This district
Local context
Read as
Employee benefits appropriation row
$3.9 million · 21%
18% peer avg; 3 pts above the Somerset County average
Named UFB appropriation row, scaled to the operating budget.
Benefits as a share of salaries
41.77%
36.73% peer avg; 5 pts above the Somerset County average
NJDOE pupil-cost row, not an appropriation amount.
Listed administrative base salaries
$958,751 · $1,422 per UFB on-roll
$1,157 peer avg; rank 6 of 19
7 selected UFB salary rows.
Highest listed administrative base salary
$193,800
$222,342 peer avg; rank 16 of 19
Superintendent
Salary and benefits rows can overlap with broader NJDOE pupil-cost totals and nested UFB appropriation rows. Administrative salary rows are selected UFB-listed roles with district-reported FTE/shared-service fields; they are not full payroll and should not be added to pupil-cost salary rows. Peer averages use Somerset County districts with usable latest-year UFB rows.
Pupil-cost category movement
NJDOE comparative cost moved +$1,743 per pupil after inflation from 2019-20 to 2025-26. The largest CPI-adjusted standardized pupil-cost row movement was classroom instruction, +$1,737 per pupil from 2019-20 to 2025-26. In the latest file, the largest local peer gap among these rows was classroom purchased services, +$1,678 versus the Somerset County average.
+$1,743Comparative-cost movementNJDOE’s published comparative-cost line, converted to real dollars across loaded UFB years.
+$1,737Largest category movementClassroom instruction, after CPI adjustment.
+$1,678Largest latest peer gapClassroom purchased services, above the Somerset County average.
NJDOE pupil-cost row
2019-20 real
2025-26 real
Real movement
Somerset County average
Latest gap
Classroom instruction
$13,750
$15,487
+$1,737
$14,271
+$1,216
Classroom purchased services
$985
$2,249
+$1,264
$571
+$1,678
Classroom supplies and textbooks
$287
$726
+$439
$505
+$221
Operations and maintenance
$2,355
$2,699
+$344
$2,993
-$294
Administrative costs
$2,539
$2,370
-$169
$2,540
-$170
Support services
$4,070
$3,954
-$116
$4,397
-$443
Legal costs
$117
$37
-$80
$51
-$14
Classroom salaries and benefits
$12,478
$12,512
+$34
$13,195
-$683
Extracurricular costs
$198
$202
+$4
$570
-$368
First-to-latest movement uses NJDOE standardized pupil-cost rows converted to 2025 dollars with CPI-U. The Somerset County average and latest gap columns use latest-year UFB per-pupil values for the same rows. Several rows are subcomponents of broader totals, so this is a category-movement screen, not an additive budget bridge.
NJDOE pupil-cost breakdown
Pupil-cost line
This district
Somerset County average
Gap
Classroom instruction
$15,487
$14,271
+$1,216
Classroom salaries and benefits
$12,512
$13,195
-$683
Support services
$3,954
$4,397
-$443
Operations and maintenance
$2,699
$2,993
-$294
Administrative costs
$2,370
$2,540
-$170
Classroom purchased services
$2,249
$571
+$1,678
Classroom supplies and textbooks
$726
$505
+$221
Extracurricular costs
$202
$570
-$368
Legal costs
$37
$51
-$14
Pupil-cost rows are NJDOE-published per-pupil figures for the proposed budget year, not amounts divided by enrollment on this page.
Budget enrollment and placements
UFB enrollment row
Count
Share of on-roll
On-roll, full
601
89%
Special education on-roll, full
73
11%
Received from other districts
28
4%
These are UFB budget-enrollment planning rows, not the fall enrollment counts used elsewhere on the profile.
Budget report section
Comparison matrix
Which tax basis, tax effort, averages, ranks, and gaps shape the comparison?
Tax basis reconciliation
The UFB summary tax levy is $15,190,345, while the esttax total-school levy sums to $15,485,124 (+$294,779 difference). The esttax file has one districtwide tax-rate slice. Those bases are kept separate below before any local-burden comparison.
$15.2 millionSummary operating levyUsed for UFB levy per planning student and levy share of operating budget.
$15.5 millionesttax total-school levy+$294,779 vs summary levy
Profile-facing UFB summary row; this is the basis for levy-per-student comparisons.
esttax General Fund levy
$14,782,244
0.63 per $100
Taxable assessed value; Jan. 1, 2025.
Taxable assessed-value rate basis; -$408,101 vs summary levy.
esttax total-school levy
$15,485,124
0.6599 per $100
Taxable assessed value; Jan. 1, 2025.
Taxable assessed-value rate basis; +$294,779 vs summary levy.
Equalized total-school levy
$15,485,124
0.727 per $100
Equalized value; Oct. 1, 2024.
Equalized-value rate basis for cross-municipality comparison.
Taxable assessed value
$2.3 billion
n/a
Jan. 1, 2025
Assessed valuation denominator for source tax-rate rows.
Equalized value
$2.1 billion
n/a
Oct. 1, 2024
Equalized valuation denominator used to compare tax bases across municipalities.
This panel reconciles the UFB summary tax levy with the esttax side-file levy, rate, and valuation bases. Rates are estimates per $100 of valuation. Taxable assessed value is the local assessed-value denominator; equalized value is the state-adjusted valuation used for cross-municipality comparison. Valuation dates travel with the source rows. The table is local-burden context for reporting, not tax-bill advice or audited property-tax data.
Tax effort and tax base
Large tax base cushions the rate. Tax levy per UFB on-roll was $22,538, -$543 versus the Somerset County average. The estimated school-tax rate was 0.727 per $100, -0.3884 versus the Somerset County average. Equalized value per UFB on-roll was +$798,406 versus the Somerset County average.
Base cushionTax-context signalGenerated from UFB tax levy, planning enrollment, and estimated tax-rate side rows.
$22,538Levy per UFB on-roll-$543 versus Somerset County average; rank 7 of 18.
0.727Estimated rate-0.3884 versus Somerset County average; equalized value weighted.
$3,160,319Equalized basePer UFB on-roll; +$798,406 versus Somerset County average.
Measure
This district
Somerset County average
Gap
Local rank
Basis
Tax levy per UFB on-roll
$22,538
$23,081
-$543
7 of 18
UFB summary tax levy divided by UFB on-roll planning enrollment.
Tax levy / operating budget
83%
70%
+13 pts
8 of 18
UFB summary tax levy divided by proposed operating budget.
Estimated school-tax rate
0.727
1.1154
-0.3884
15 of 17
UFB esttax side-file rows; equalized value weighted.
Equalized value per UFB on-roll
$3,160,319
$2,361,913
+$798,406
5 of 17
Total equalized value from plausible UFB esttax rows divided by UFB on-roll.
Municipal rate spread
0
0.0613
-0.0613
6 of 19
Highest minus lowest plausible estimated rate across municipal/regional slices.
Estimated tax-rate slices
Slice
Displayed rate
Equalized rate
Total levy
Equalized value
Watchung Boro
0.727
0.727
$15.5 million
$2.1 billion
Tax levy per UFB on-roll comes from the UFB summary tax levy and planning enrollment. Estimated tax rates and equalized values come from the UFB esttax side file, use plausible rate rows only, and are shown per $100 of valuation. This is tax-base context for budget reporting, not tax-bill advice or audited property-tax data.
Budget measures that stand out locally
Measure
This district
Peer avg
Gap
Rank
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student
$27,251
$47,352
-$20,101
12 of 19
Listed admin base salaries per UFB on-roll student
$1,422
$1,157
+$266
6 of 19
Highest listed admin base salary
$193,800
$222,342
-$28,542
16 of 19
Tax levy as operating-budget equivalent
83%
70%
+13 pts
8 of 18
State operating revenue share
9%
20%
-11 pts
10 of 18
Support services per pupil
$3,954
$4,397
-$443
13 of 18
Operations and maintenance per pupil
$2,699
$2,993
-$294
10 of 18
Classroom instruction per pupil
$15,487
$14,271
+$1,216
5 of 18
Peer averages and ranks compare against Somerset County districts with usable values for the same 2025-26 UFB measure. Rank is ordered from highest value to lowest value; higher is not automatically better or worse.
UFB lines unlike local peers
Largest line-item differences: Total Tax Levy is 83%, +16 pts versus the peer average; Equalization Aid is 0%, -11 pts versus the peer average.
UFB row
File
Amount
Op. equiv.
Peer avg
Gap
Rank
Total Tax Levy
Revenue
$15,190,345
83%
66%
+16 pts
8 of 19
Equalization Aid
Revenue
$0
0%
11%
-11 pts
7 of 19
Total Revenues from State Sources
Revenue
$1,586,213
9%
19%
-10 pts
10 of 19
Total Revenues from Local Sources
Revenue
$15,443,345
84%
76%
+8 pts
12 of 19
Total Special Education-Instruction
Appropriation
$2,603,332
14%
8%
+6 pts
1 of 19
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Instruction (Tuition)
Appropriation
$448,433
2%
9%
-6 pts
15 of 19
Total Regular Programs-Instruction
Appropriation
$5,096,201
28%
22%
+5 pts
5 of 19
Total Undistributed Expenditures
Appropriation
$10,261,114
56%
60%
-5 pts
14 of 19
Total General Current Expense
Appropriation
$18,314,930
100%
95%
+4 pts
2 of 19
Transportation Fees from Other Local Education Authorities
Revenue
$0
0%
4%
-4 pts
6 of 19
Total Capital Outlay
Appropriation
$52,138
<1%
4%
-3 pts
18 of 19
Total Personal Services-Employee Benefits
Appropriation
$3,858,382
21%
18%
+3 pts
3 of 19
This scans contextual revenue and appropriation rows against Somerset County districts with usable 2025-26 UFB data. The operating-equivalent columns use each district’s proposed operating budget as a scale reference; peer-common rows missing from this district are treated as $0 so absences can surface. Rows remain nested and non-additive.
Budget comparison matrix
Measure
This district
Somerset County average
Local rank
NJ avg
NJ rank
Comparative cost per pupil
$24,712
$24,879
9 of 18
$23,591
146 of 566
Operating budget per UFB on-roll student
$27,251
$47,352
12 of 19
$39,253
235 of 578
Tax levy per UFB on-roll student
$22,538
$23,081
7 of 18
$17,835
136 of 566
Local operating revenue share
84%
76%
12 of 19
69%
227 of 595
State operating revenue share
9%
20%
10 of 18
25%
371 of 574
Fund balance / other operating revenue share
7%
6%
6 of 19
7%
226 of 595
Employee benefits share
21%
18%
3 of 19
17%
109 of 586
Operations and maintenance share
9%
8%
10 of 19
9%
319 of 587
Student transportation share
7%
9%
8 of 19
6%
210 of 592
Special Revenue Funds equivalent
1%
3%
13 of 19
7%
484 of 585
Debt Service Funds equivalent
6%
4%
3 of 15
4%
73 of 406
Special-education on-roll planning share
11%
17%
18 of 19
18%
515 of 576
Classroom instruction per pupil
$15,487
$14,271
5 of 18
$13,434
80 of 569
Support services per pupil
$3,954
$4,397
13 of 18
$4,329
289 of 569
Operations and maintenance per pupil
$2,699
$2,993
10 of 18
$2,879
266 of 569
Administrative costs per pupil
$2,370
$2,540
12 of 18
$2,270
205 of 569
Listed admin base salaries per UFB on-roll student
$1,422
$1,157
6 of 19
$1,366
110 of 575
Highest listed admin base salary
$193,800
$222,342
16 of 19
$199,341
320 of 580
Averages and ranks use districts with usable values for the same latest UFB year. Ranks run from highest value to lowest value, so rank 1 is not automatically better or worse.
Budget report section
Budget anatomy
How do operating sources, operating uses, all-funds totals, grants, and debt fit together?
Budget anatomy
Money in
Row
Amount
Op. share
Local sources
$15.4 million
84%
State sources
$1.6 million
9%
Fund balance / other
$1.3 million
7%
Operating uses
Row
Amount
Op. share
General current expense
$18.3 million
>99%
Capital outlay
$52,138
<1%
All-funds and outside-operating rows
Row
Amount
Op. equiv.
All-funds net above operating
$1.3 million
7%
Debt Service Funds
$1.1 million
6%
Special Revenue Funds
$208,677
1%
Federal projects
$133,677
<1%
Facilities acquisition and construction
$47,138
<1%
This anatomy starts with the proposed operating budget as the common denominator. The outside-operating column uses the same denominator only as a scale reference; those rows can include grants, debt service, capital, and nested fund sections. The dynamic tables below scan 29 positive revenue rows and 39 positive appropriation rows; 33 changed revenue rows and 42 changed appropriation rows from the latest UFB files.
Budget report section
Side files
Which tax, balance, reserve, unusual-item, shared-service, school-resource, or salary rows matter?
Side-file history
UFB year
Tax file
Balances / reserves
Notes / shared services
Resource / salary files
2019-20
tax-file levy $11.5 million; rate 0.6352
Restricted--General Operating Budget: Capit... $948,895; reserve/fund-balance sources $1.1 million
Restricted-General Operating Budget: Capita... $1.1 million; reserve/fund-balance sources $1.2 million
8 shared-service rows
7 admin salary rows · $958,751
This table summarizes UFB side files across loaded years so latest-year tax, balance, unusual-item, shared-service, school-resource, and salary rows can be read in context. Recap rows, shared-service savings, and salary files are district-reported context rows, not audited operating totals.
Balance and reserve history
Latest projected close-year balances total $1,600,009, 9% of operating-budget scale. After inflation, total projected balance changed +$87,359 from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Restricted or named-reserve rows account for 78% of the latest projected balance. Largest latest category: Capital reserve, $1,115,337. Largest real movement: Special-revenue scholarship fund, +$81,267.
Capital reserve
How much balance is set aside for capital projects or capital expenses?
Largest latest recap rowRestricted-General Operating Budget: Unemployment Fund$58,319
A restricted balance row, not a recurring operating cost line.
Recap rows are UFB projected balances at the close of the budget year, not operating appropriations or a spendable-cash claim. Tiny placeholder rows below $1,000 are suppressed. Money movement compares 2019-20 with 2025-26 in 2025 dollars, and operating-equivalent shares use each year's proposed operating budget. Peer avg is the Somerset County average where at least six local peer districts have usable recap rows.
Taxes, reserves, and balances
Tax-rate estimate
Measure
Value
General Fund levy
$14,782,244
General Fund school-tax rate
0.63
Total school levy
$15,485,124
Total school-tax rate
0.6599
Equalized total school-tax rate
0.727
Estimated taxable valuation
$2.3 billion
Balances projected at year-end
Recap category
Projected
Vs prior audited
Restricted-General Operating Budget: Capital Reserve
$1.1 million
+$10,000
Unrestricted-General Operating Budget
$345,086
-$380,001
Restricted-Special Revenue Fund: Scholarship Fund
$81,267
$0
Restricted-General Operating Budget: Unemployment Fund
$58,319
$0
Reserve and fund-balance sources
Revenue row
Amount
Budgeted fund balance
$1.2 million
Tax rates are NJDOE estimated school-tax-rate rows per $100 of valuation. Balance rows come from the UFB recapitulation file; the projected column is the estimated balance at the close of the budget year, not a spendable operating line.
Unusual items and shared-service profile
The shared-service file lists 8 arrangements with no dollar savings reported, 0 pts versus the Somerset County average; peer average 7.9 rows. Most visible shared-service category: transportation shared services.
Shared-service categories
Category
Rows / savings
Example arrangement
Transportation shared servicesAre transportation arrangements part of the cost story?
3 rowsno savings reported
Transportation Services, including FuelFuel for District vehicles supplied at cost by municipality
Insurance and benefitsAre insurance, benefit, or coverage arrangements reported as shared services?
2 rowsno savings reported
Insurance Coverages and BenefitsMedical and Prescription insurance purchased through State Health Insurance Fund consortium
Custodial, maintenance, and facilitiesDo facilities or maintenance arrangements explain part of operations spending?
2 rowsno savings reported
Custodial and Maintenance ServicesMunicipality assists with snow removal and field maintenance at no cost to the District
Purchasing and procurementDoes the district report purchasing cooperation rather than a direct service consolidation?
1 rowno savings reported
PurchasingParticipation in cooperative purchasing systems, state contract vendors, and educational services commissions
This panel classifies the latest UFB unusual-item and shared-service side files using the same reporting categories as the statewide budget explorer. Positive unusual-item dollars can duplicate named revenue or appropriation rows elsewhere in the budget. Shared-service savings are optional district-entered context, not audited offsets to current spending. Peer comparisons use Somerset County districts where enough peers have usable side-file rows.
Budget notes and shared services
Shared-service entries
Category
Description
Savings
Custodial and Maintenance Services
Municipality assists with snow removal and field maintenance at no cost to the District
not reported
Custodial and Maintenance Services
Waste disposal services purchased through joint purchasing agreement with Watchung Hills Regional High School
not reported
Insurance Coverages and Benefits
Medical and Prescription insurance purchased through State Health Insurance Fund consortium
not reported
Insurance Coverages and Benefits
Property and Casualty insurance purchased through Diploma Joint Insurance Fund
not reported
Purchasing
Participation in cooperative purchasing systems, state contract vendors, and educational services commissions
not reported
Transportation Services, including Fuel
Fuel for District vehicles supplied at cost by municipality
not reported
Showing 6 of 8 shared-service rows.
Unusual items and shared services are district-reported UFB explanation rows. Shared-service savings are optional, so a listed arrangement can show no dollar amount.
Listed administrative salary history
The UFB employees side file lists selected administrative salary rows for 7 loaded budget years. Listed base salary moved from $835,373 in 2019-20 to $958,751 in 2025-26 in 2025 dollars (up $123,378). The selected-row count changed from 5 to 7 (+2).
$958,751Latest listed base7 selected rows, shown in 2025 dollars.
7Latest listed FTE0 rows marked shared service.
$1,422Latest base per UFB on-rollScale check for selected listed administration only.
21Latest text term entriesPayout, buyback, comment, non-work-day, or post-employment text fields.
Loaded-year salary side-file trail
UFB year
Listed base
Rows / FTE
Highest listed role
Add-ons / terms
2019-20
$835,373
5 rows; FTE 5no shared rows
$216,168mary Nunn · Principal
$77,531 add-on dollar fields15 text-term field entries
2020-21
$835,797
5 rows; FTE 5no shared rows
$211,468George Alexis · Superintendent
$215,709 add-on dollar fields15 text-term field entries
2021-22
$932,710
6 rows; FTE 6no shared rows
$213,860George Alexis · Superintendent
$121,635 add-on dollar fields18 text-term field entries
2022-23
$973,911
7 rows; FTE 7no shared rows
$203,514George Alexis · Superintendent
$106,577 add-on dollar fields21 text-term field entries
2023-24
$896,845
7 rows; FTE 7no shared rows
$195,468George Alexis · Superintendent
$92,690 add-on dollar fields18 text-term field entries
2024-25
$952,345
7 rows; FTE 7no shared rows
$194,999Julie Glazer · Superintendent
$49,161 add-on dollar fields21 text-term field entries
2025-26
$958,751
7 rows; FTE 7no shared rows
$193,800Julie Glazer · Superintendent
$101,856 add-on dollar fields21 text-term field entries
Latest local peer scale checks
Measure
This district
Somerset County average
Gap
Read as
Listed base per UFB on-roll
$1,422
$1,157
+$266
Selected admin base salaries divided by UFB planning on-roll.Local rank 6 of 19 among Somerset County districts with usable salary rows.
Listed rows per 1,000 UFB on-roll
10.4
9
+1.4
Selected listed administrative rows scaled to enrollment.Local rank 7 of 19 among Somerset County districts with usable salary rows.
Listed FTE per 1,000 UFB on-roll
10.4
8.8
+1.6
FTE field total scaled to enrollment; not district staffing headcount.Local rank 6 of 19 among Somerset County districts with usable salary rows.
Shared-service row share
0%
<1%
0 pts
Share of selected salary rows marked shared in the side file.Local rank 2 of 19 among Somerset County districts with usable salary rows.
Dollar columns in the history table are converted to 2025 dollars with CPI-U. The UFB employees side file lists selected administrative salary rows, FTE/shared flags, add-on compensation fields, work/leave terms, and comments; it is not full payroll, a staffing census, total compensation, or an operating-budget category. Peer checks use the latest matched year only and rank higher numeric values first.
Listed administrative salaries
The UFB salary side file lists 7 selected administrative rows totaling $958,751 in base salaries. It also includes district-reported add-on compensation fields, work and leave-day terms, and payout or buyback text where those fields are filled.
$958,751Listed base salaries7 selected administrative rows; not full payroll.
Administrative salary rows are selected listed roles from the UFB employees side file, not complete payroll, a contract audit, or an operating-budget total. Component fields are shown separately because allowances, benefits, remuneration, leave days, payouts, and comments are mixed units and can overlap in meaning. Dollar fields are nominal latest-file values.
Budget report section
Source rows
Which visible UFB revenue and appropriation rows support the report?
UFB source-file ledger
These are the exact NJDOE User-Friendly Budget CSV files behind this report. Links open the statewide source files for 2025-26, while the row counts show how much of each file matched this district in the local warehouse.
Named levy, aid, grant, tuition, fund-balance, reserve, and other source rows behind the operating-revenue mix.Includes subtotals and non-operating context rows; it is not one additive revenue schedule.
High-level operating uses, transfers, fund totals, lower-level program rows, capital, debt, and special-revenue scale.Many rows are nested; operating-equivalent shares are scale references, not additive totals.
NJDOE standardized per-pupil cost rows used for classroom, support, operations, administration, and benefits comparisons.These are published NJDOE rows; the report does not recompute them from appropriations or enrollment.
Budget-enrollment file2019-20 to 2025-26 (7 files)
UFB on-roll, special-education on-roll, sent/received placements, contract preschool, and denominator context.Planning enrollment is not the same as fall enrollment and should not be added to dollar rows.
Projected close-year balances, reserves, restricted balances, and fund-balance context.Balance rows are not current operating appropriations or spendable-cash claims.
Estimated school-tax rates, levy slices, taxable values, equalized values, and municipal/regional spread context.Estimated tax rows are UFB context, not tax-bill advice or audited property-tax data.
District-reported shared-service arrangements and optional savings fields.Reported savings are context rows, not audited offsets against the operating budget.
Selected administrative salary rows, FTE, shared-service flags, contract fields, and comments where published.Selected listed administration is not complete payroll or total compensation.
The links are source-file provenance, not district-specific extracts. Each CSV covers all districts published in that UFB file; the generated report filters those rows to this district and keeps source-family caveats attached before making comparisons.
Largest current UFB lines
UFB row
File
Amount
Operating equiv.
Total General Current Expense
Appropriation
$18,314,930
100%
Total Revenues from Local Sources (370)
Revenue
$15,443,345
84%
Total Tax Levy
Revenue
$15,190,345
83%
Total Undistributed Expenditures
Appropriation
$10,261,114
56%
Total Regular Programs-Instruction
Appropriation
$5,096,201
28%
Total Personal Services-Employee Benefits
Appropriation
$3,858,382
21%
Total Special Education-Instruction
Appropriation
$2,603,332
14%
Total Revenues from State Sources
Revenue
$1,586,213
9%
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Operation and Maintenance of Plant Services
Appropriation
$1,584,364
9%
Budgeted Fund Balance-Operating Budget
Revenue
$1,224,847
7%
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Student Transportation Services
Appropriation
$1,210,696
7%
Total Debt Service Funds
Appropriation
$1,128,369
6%
Total Repayment of Debt
Revenue
$1,128,369
6%
Local Tax Levy
Revenue
$765,770
4%
Total Revenues from Local Sources (885)
Revenue
$765,770
4%
Categorical Special Education Aid
Revenue
$692,472
4%
Selected dynamically from every positive revenue and appropriation row in the latest UFB files after dropping outer totals. Rows come from different files and fund sections, so the operating-equivalent column is only a scale reference.
Main funds and transfers
UFB appropriation row
Amount
Operating equiv.
Total expenditures net of transfers
$19,704,114
107%
General Fund grand total
$18,367,068
100%
General current expense
$18,314,930
100%
Special Revenue Funds
$208,677
1%
Federal projects
$133,677
<1%
Capital outlay
$52,138
<1%
Facilities acquisition and construction
$47,138
<1%
Debt Service Funds
$1,128,369
6%
Rows mix all-funds totals, General Fund rows, transfers, capital, special-revenue, and debt-service lines. The operating-equivalent column is a scale reference, not a claim that these rows add to the operating budget.
Selected operating cost lines
UFB line
Amount
Op. share
Peer avg
Regular programs instruction
$5,096,201
28%
22%
Employee benefits
$3,858,382
21%
18%
Special education instruction
$2,603,332
14%
8%
Operations and maintenance
$1,584,364
9%
8%
Student transportation
$1,210,696
7%
9%
Instruction tuition
$448,433
2%
9%
Speech, OT, PT and related services
$411,779
2%
1%
Child study teams
$399,539
2%
2%
School administration
$389,788
2%
3%
General administration
$386,317
2%
2%
Not additive: these lower-level appropriation rows add texture, but they are nested inside broader fund categories and should not be added together as a complete budget mix.
Selected revenue lines
UFB revenue row
Amount
Op. share
Peer avg
Total tax levy
$15,190,345
83%
66%
Budgeted fund balance
$1,224,847
7%
4%
Special education aid
$692,472
4%
4%
Transportation aid
$488,086
3%
1%
Debt Service Aid Type II
$362,599
2%
<1%
Extraordinary aid
$300,000
2%
<1%
Tuition revenue
$228,000
1%
4%
Security aid
$105,655
<1%
<1%
IDEA Part B
$105,190
<1%
<1%
Unrestricted miscellaneous revenue
$20,000
<1%
<1%
Title I
$16,840
<1%
<1%
These are selected source rows from operating, special-revenue, debt-service, and reserve sections. They are not additive because several are subtotals or belong to different funds.
Current UFB line appendix
Revenue file · 24 contextual rows
Line
Account
UFB row
Amount
Op. equiv.
100/114
10-1210
Total Tax Levy
$15,190,345
83%
190
10-1300
Total Tuition
$228,000
1%
300
10-1XXX
Unrestricted Miscellaneous Revenues
$20,000
<1%
340
10-1XXX
Interest Earned on Capital Reserve Funds
$5,000
<1%
370
n/a
Total Revenues from Local Sources (370)
$15,443,345
84%
420
10-3121
Categorical Transportation Aid
$488,086
3%
430
10-3131
Extraordinary Aid
$300,000
2%
440
10-3132
Categorical Special Education Aid
$692,472
4%
470
10-3177
Categorical Security Aid
$105,655
<1%
520
n/a
Total Revenues from State Sources
$1,586,213
9%
580
10-303
Budgeted Fund Balance-Operating Budget
$1,224,847
7%
700
10-5XXX
Other Financing Sources
$112,663
<1%
737
20-1760
Student Activity Fund Revenue
$75,000
<1%
745
20-1XXX
Total Revenues from Local Sources (745)
$75,000
<1%
775
20-4411-4416
Title I (775)
$16,840
<1%
780
20-4451-4455
Title II (780)
$4,647
<1%
790
20-4471-4474
Title IV (790)
$7,000
<1%
805
20-4420-4429
I.D.E.A. Part B (Handicapped) (805)
$105,190
<1%
830
n/a
Total Revenues from Federal Sources
$133,677
<1%
840
n/a
Total Grants and Entitlements
$208,677
1%
860
40-1210
Local Tax Levy
$765,770
4%
885
n/a
Total Revenues from Local Sources (885)
$765,770
4%
890
40-3160
Debt Service Aid Type II
$362,599
2%
935
n/a
Total Repayment of Debt
$1,128,369
6%
Appropriation file · 35 contextual rows
Line
Account
UFB row
Amount
Op. equiv.
3200
11-1XX-100-XX
Total Regular Programs-Instruction
$5,096,201
28%
10300
11-2XX-100-XX
Total Special Education-Instruction
$2,603,332
14%
11160
11-230-100-XX
Total Basic Skills/Remedial-Instruction
$137,340
<1%
12160
11-240-100-XX
Total Bilingual Education-Instruction
$116,503
<1%
17100
11-401-100-XX
Total School-Sponsored Cocurricular Or Extracurricular Activities-Instruction
$61,500
<1%
17600
11-402-100-XX
Total School-Sponsored Athletics-Instruction
$38,940
<1%
29180
11-000-100-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Instruction (Tuition)
$448,433
2%
29680
11-000-211-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Attendance and Social Work
$48,125
<1%
30620
11-000-213-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Health Services
$260,648
1%
40580
11-000-216-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Speech, OT, PT and Related Services
$411,779
2%
41660
11-000-218-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Guidance
$212,470
1%
42200
11-000-219-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Child Study Teams
$399,539
2%
43200
11-000-221-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Improvement of Instruction Services
$333,771
2%
43620
11-000-222-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Education Media Services/Library
$248,412
1%
44180
11-000-223-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Instructional Staff Training Services
$66,825
<1%
45300
11-000-230-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Support Services-General Administration
$386,317
2%
46160
11-000-240-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Support Services-School Administration
$389,788
2%
47200
11-000-251-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Central Services
$299,799
2%
47620
11-000-252-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Administrative Informationtechnology
$101,766
<1%
51120
11-000-26X-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Operation and Maintenance of Plant Services
$1,584,364
9%
52480
11-000-270-XX
Total Undistributed Expenditures-Student Transportation Services
$1,210,696
7%
71260
11-XXX-XXX-2X
Total Personal Services-Employee Benefits
$3,858,382
21%
72140
n/a
Total Undistributed Expenditures
$10,261,114
56%
72260
n/a
Total General Current Expense
$18,314,930
100%
76260
12-000-400-XX
Total Facilities Acquisition and Construction Services
$47,138
<1%
76380
10-604
Interest Deposit to Capital Reserve
$5,000
<1%
76400
n/a
Total Capital Outlay
$52,138
<1%
84200
20-475-XXX-XX
Student Activity Fund
$75,000
<1%
88500
20-XXX-XXX-XX
Title I (88500)
$16,840
<1%
88520
20-XXX-XXX-XX
Title II (88520)
$4,647
<1%
88560
20-XXX-XXX-XX
Title IV (88560)
$7,000
<1%
88620
20-XXX-XXX-XX
I.D.E.A. Part B (Handicapped) (88620)
$105,190
<1%
88740
20-XXX-XXX-XX
Total Federal Projects
$133,677
<1%
88760
n/a
Total Special Revenue Funds
$208,677
1%
89980
n/a
Total Debt Service Funds
$1,128,369
6%
This appendix lists all 59 contextual positive latest-year UFB revenue and appropriation rows after dropping outer totals, deduct rows, and known duplicate tax-levy label variants. Rows are still source-file rows, not one additive schedule; the operating-equivalent column uses the proposed operating budget only as a common scale reference.
The budget answer sheet turns the current proposal, peer and slice position, revenue model, use categories, student/service load, inflation-adjusted movement, and reserve/side-file context into direct reader questions in the first-read path. The budget front brief replaces the dense opening paragraph with a lead sentence, anchored takeaways, and a short synthesis paragraph so each load-bearing number has a comparison, time basis, fund scope, or denominator before the detailed report opens. The budget essentials panel answers the main resident questions before the long evidence stack: first read, peer cost, proposal movement, payer mix, category/source-family signal, inflation-adjusted trend, student denominator, and side-file context. The budget machine panel now appears immediately after the thesis and reporting notebook, preserving the same operating-squeeze route as the front brief when recurring pressure is the selected first read, then extracting the resident-facing mechanism across cost position, funding model, recurring cost engine, inflation and denominator movement, and proposal/reserve timing before the long evidence sections. The budget squeeze explainer now appears in the first-read path, connecting recurring operating sources, recurring cost families, CPI-adjusted per-student movement, service-load denominators, current proposal rows, one-time support, and local record checks before the long evidence sections. The budget evidence board now appears in the first-read path, putting peer and slice comparison frames, category-family movers, inflation/denominator checks, and nominal proposal rows side by side before the answer sheet and detailed proof sections. The budget operating model turns the first-read evidence into six compact resident reads: operating scale, payer mix, source-family uses, CPI-adjusted movement, latest proposal movement, and one-time, tax, or service-load checks that can change the interpretation. The comparison brief puts the published cost line into named local peer, statewide, funding-model, scale, cost-band, and high-signal category or service-load frames before the long report begins. The budget diagnosis ranks the strongest generated explanatory lanes before the long evidence sections, separating what each lane can explain from what it cannot prove. The peer position snapshot now follows the front brief so the opening cost, funding, and category or service-load comparisons are visible as local peer distributions before the report map, language key, and long evidence sections. The budget explanation brief now appears in the top report path after the answer sheet, separating largest current source-row family, widest local peer gap, largest inflation-adjusted family movement, and latest proposal-column movement before the map and detailed proof sections. The budget story package now appears in the top report path after the explanation brief, keeping the UFB-supported claim, fair comparison, inflation/category/proposal checks, next reporting move, and blocked overread on the same row before the peer snapshot and map. The budget mechanism read now appears in the top report path before the map, separating relative-cost, funding, category/slice, inflation/denominator, student/service-load, proposal-timing, one-time-support, and outside-operating explanations into proof, next-reporting, and blocked-overread columns. The budget thesis and reporting-order panel now appears directly after the front brief, turning the first-read evidence into an editor-style route: compare peers and slices first, then read categories/source rows, use CPI-adjusted movement and denominator checks as guardrails, and hand causal claims to outside reporting. The opening budget-story panel ranks the strongest generated reporting leads from latest-year peer comparisons, row-level scans, planning-enrollment rows, and inflation-adjusted movement. The budget story spine keeps each reportable signal beside its UFB proof, fair comparison, outside-reporting need, and overread caveat before the report opens the longer evidence sections. The budget storylines panel packages the strongest UFB signals as article routes with a working nut graf, reader value, proof basis, outside-reporting gap, and sentence to avoid before writing. The budget reading memo turns the strongest UFB signals into an opening editorial route: the lead angle to test, why the simple read is weak, which context changes the read, and what records or checks should come next. The question-to-reporting path turns the strongest district-specific UFB signals into resident questions, first comparison frames, records to pull, and unsupported shortcuts to block before writing. The public-hearing agenda converts the proposal, relative-cost, category, inflation, student/service, and side-file signals into concrete meeting questions, record requests, proof links, and unsupported readings to block. The budget news judgment filter labels ordinary nominal growth as background, separates UFB-ready facts from leads that need a second signal or outside records, and blocks causal or quality claims from UFB alone. The budget claim audit turns the strongest UFB-supported signals into sentence-level claims, then labels what still needs outside reporting and which unsupported shortcuts to block before writing. The comparison movement brief pulls selected peer-position trend measures into the opening story so readers can see whether the district moved toward or away from the local average on cost, funding, tax, category, and service-load signals. The comparison-frame movement panel takes the latest-year local, statewide, funding-model, scale, and cost-band frames from the relative-cost ladder and checks whether published comparative cost moved closer to or farther from each frame after inflation. The operating story basis panel separates recurring General Fund operating evidence from live proposal movement, fund-balance/reserve sources, side-file context, and outside-operating rows before readers interpret the budget story. The structural squeeze test checks whether main operating-source movement, appropriation/use-family movement, limited support, service-load denominators, and peer position support a recurring-pressure hypothesis, while naming the outside records needed before writing a deficit, levy-cap, cut, or causal claim. The budget flow bridge keeps the relative cost frame, money in, money out, proposal movement, outside-operating rows, side files, and student denominator in one scan before readers enter the detailed evidence sections. The budget pressure map ranks the cost, funding, category, proposal, student/service-load, inflation, reserve/side-file, and outside-operating pressures a reader should test first, while separating what each pressure can explain from what it cannot prove. The budget tension checks pair current cost position, inflation-adjusted movement, proposal movement, tax burden, funding model, category slices, service load, reserves, and outside-operating rows so a reader can see which simple budget reads need a second signal. The category story map pulls current source-row scale, local peer gaps, inflation-adjusted movement, and latest proposal movement into one first-read map before the detailed category, trend, and proposal tables. The proposal-versus-trend bridge checks whether latest proposal-column movement continues, counters, or sits apart from loaded-year inflation-adjusted category movement. The budget reporting lead sheet turns the strongest generated signals into a ranked reporting agenda with evidence, reader questions, caveats, and links to the proof sections. The budget reporting notebook now appears directly after the thesis, translating the ranked UFB leads into outside records, interview checks, proof links, and unsupported readings to block before the longer report path opens. The editorial frame separates what UFB can establish from what still requires board documents, tax records, contracts, staffing context, or other outside reporting before causal claims are made. The budget model synthesis connects cost position, funding model, spending structure, service load, live proposal movement, inflation-adjusted trend, and side-file context into one reporting frame before the detailed evidence sections. The cost gap ledger translates the comparison into per-UFB-on-roll dollar gaps for operating scale, funding sources, use categories, pupil-cost rows, and service-load denominators before the detailed evidence sections. The cost-position clues panel now appears in the first-read path, naming the concrete UFB measures, funding and tax signals, named rows, proposal movement, denominator checks, and budget-year context that can explain or complicate the district’s comparative-cost position without claiming causality. The cost-position judgment panel now follows the clue scan in the first-read path, deciding whether the visible UFB signals line up with the published comparative-cost position, complicate it, or leave the explanation to outside reporting. The UFB source-coverage panel inventories the latest matched summary, revenue, appropriation, pupil-cost, planning-enrollment, tax, balance, unusual-item, shared-service, school-resource, and salary source families before the report routes them into evidence sections. The UFB source-file ledger links the exact latest NJDOE CSV files behind the district report and names the row count, use, and limit for each loaded budget file. The statewide budget-model panel names the broader comparison frames this district belongs to before the report moves into local peer evidence and source rows. The statewide slice-comparison panel opens with a relative-cost ladder across local peers, all NJ UFB districts, and matching latest-year groups for funding model, UFB on-roll scale, comparative-cost band, and generated category signals. The named similar-budget-model comps panel turns statewide slice logic into concrete district examples by naming districts with nearby latest-year UFB funding, scale, use, service-load, tax, and cost profiles. The change-driver panel summarizes first-to-latest UFB movement across real operating scale, planning-enrollment denominator shifts, peer-position changes, source shares, use shares, and named line rows. The comparative-cost timing-basis panel maps the latest UFB file’s actual-cost, original-budget, revised/current-budget, and proposed-budget columns before readers interpret trend or proposal claims. The per-student cost-change anatomy panel decomposes real operating budget per UFB on-roll into a budget-numerator effect and a planning-enrollment denominator effect, while keeping NJDOE comparative cost distinct. The operating funding-shift panel shows who paid differently across loaded UFB years by separating local, state, federal, and fund-balance/other operating-source shares, real-dollar movement, and latest local peer mix. The pupil-cost category movement panel shows which NJDOE standardized per-pupil cost rows moved after inflation and how the latest row values compare with the local peer average. The current-proposal panel compares the latest UFB revised/current-budget column with the proposed-budget column for operating revenue, high-level uses, NJDOE pupil-cost rows, and UFB planning enrollment. The proposal package panel groups material named revised/current-to-proposed UFB row movement into budget families, separating increases, reductions, net movement, largest rows, and local peer scale before the named-line driver table. The named-line proposal-driver panel scans every latest-year UFB revenue and appropriation row with revised/current and proposed amounts, then surfaces material nominal row changes with operating-budget-equivalent scale and same-row local peer context. The cost-basis reconciliation panel separates NJDOE comparative cost, operating-budget-per-student scale checks, all-funds context, and tax-levy pressure so per-student ranks are read with their numerator and denominator. The student-flow and money-path panel separates operating-dollar routes from UFB planning-enrollment routes so transfer rows, school-based budgeting, special-education load, sent placements, and received-student rows are read as distinct evidence. The dot strip compares 2025-26 comparative cost per pupil across Somerset County districts; each dot is one district, shown in 2025 dollars. The local-standout table ranks funding, spending, placement, and pupil-cost measures against the same peer set; rank 1 means the highest value, not the best value. The local peer evidence strips show the strongest generated budget measures as peer distributions, so the rank and gap can be checked visually. The named peer context panel identifies the local districts immediately above and below this district on selected measures, plus the local range behind the average. The local comparison roster names every district in the local peer set behind the averages and ranks, with comparative cost, UFB planning enrollment, operating scale, and funding-model context. The current operating mix comparison uses paired stacked bars to compare this district with the local peer average for General Fund operating revenue sources and high-level operating uses, keeping the operating-budget denominator and non-additive category caveat visible. The position-over-time panel tracks selected budget measures against the local peer average across loaded UFB years, with money values converted to real dollars. The fall-enrollment and student-need panel puts UFB planning enrollment beside fall enrollment, per-student scale checks, free/reduced-price lunch, multilingual learners, and homelessness for the same local peer frame. The service-load history panel tracks UFB planning-enrollment rows across loaded years so denominator movement, special-education on-roll, sent placements, contract preschool, and receiving rows are visible before per-pupil cost comparisons. The labor-cost context panel puts salary-bearing pupil-cost rows, employee benefits, and selected administrative salary side-file rows in the local peer frame without treating those rows as complete payroll. The loaded-year ledger gives the annual operating-budget, UFB on-roll, real per-student cost, peer-average, funding-mix, and largest-use context behind the trend panels. The named-line history panel shows the selected UFB revenue and appropriation row movers year by year in real dollars and operating-budget-equivalent scale. The fund-balance and reserve source-history panel separates named balance, reserve, and carryover source rows from local, state, and federal operating-source summaries, then shows latest scale, local peer scale, proposal-column movement, and first-to-latest real movement. The category history table compares major operating uses, nested cost rows, and outside-operating scale rows by latest amount, peer share, first-to-latest share movement, and inflation-adjusted dollar movement. The budget-family context matrix gives a scan-first category view of which source-row families are largest now, furthest from local peers, or moving most after inflation before the detailed family cards and source rows. The named family peer context names the local districts immediately above and below this district on selected budget-family shares, plus the local range behind the peer average. The budget-family lens groups contextual UFB revenue and appropriation rows into reader-facing families with latest scale, local peer scale, first-to-latest real movement, and largest source-row evidence. The anatomy panel separates operating sources, high-level operating uses, and all-funds or outside-operating rows before the lower-level tables. The budget diagnostic turns the UFB source files into fixed reader questions about cost position, funding model, spending mix, student-service load, inflation-adjusted movement, and side-file context. The walkthrough gives the report a reader-facing path through money in, money out, costs and students, real-dollar changes, and UFB side files before the detailed tables. The comparison matrix extends the same measures to county and statewide averages and ranks where enough districts have usable values. The tax-effort panel separates UFB summary tax levy per planning student, estimated school-tax rates, equalized tax base, and municipal slice spread before the raw tax-rate side-file rows. The tax and balance panel uses NJDOE estimated tax-rate rows and recapitulation-of-balance rows, separating levy/rate context from operating spending. The side-file history table shows whether tax, balance, unusual-item, shared-service, school-resource, and salary context is persistent or latest-year-only. The balance and reserve history panel tracks projected close-year recap balances by category across loaded UFB years, with real-dollar movement, local peer scale, and restriction caveats. The administrative-salary table lists selected UFB administrative salary rows; it is not complete payroll. The listed administrative salary history panel tracks selected UFB employees side-file rows across loaded years in real dollars, then compares latest listed base, row, FTE, and shared-service scale with local peers. The budget-notes panel surfaces district-reported unusual revenue or appropriation explanations and shared-service entries. The unusual/shared-service profile classifies district-reported unusual-item explanations and shared-service arrangements before the raw side-file rows, while blocking additive or audited-savings readings. The spending-category bars use high-level General Fund appropriation rows as shares of the proposed operating budget; the neutral tick is the average among Somerset County districts with usable category data. The stacked trend bars show category shares of each loaded UFB year’s proposed operating budget, so they foreground structure rather than nominal dollar growth. The budget turning-points table compares adjacent loaded UFB years so annual real-dollar, peer-gap, payer-mix, source-family, named-row, and service-load movements surface before the longer trend evidence. The largest-lines table is selected from the positive line rows in the latest UFB revenue and appropriation files, excluding only outer totals. The current UFB line appendix lists every contextual positive latest-year revenue and appropriation row, keeping source-file line numbers and accounts visible. The peer-line table compares contextual UFB revenue and appropriation rows against the local peer set so unusually large, small, or absent named rows surface before the full line appendix. The main-funds table keeps all-funds, General Fund, transfer, special-revenue, capital, and debt-service rows visible without treating them as one additive mix. The selected cost table uses lower-level UFB appropriation rows for reader context; those rows are nested inside broader categories and are not additive. The trend-driver table compares contextual UFB rows from the first loaded budget year to the latest year in 2025 dollars; share changes use the operating budget as a scale reference. The selected revenue table pulls named aid, levy, reserve, and grant lines from the UFB revenue file; some rows are subtotals or come from non-operating funds. The pupil-cost table uses NJDOE-published per-pupil breakdown rows for the proposed budget year. The enrollment/placement table uses UFB budget-enrollment planning rows, which can differ from fall enrollment. The line adjusts NJDOE’s published comparative per-pupil cost for each loaded User-Friendly Budget year to 2025 dollars using BLS CPI-U annual averages. The lighter line shows the Somerset County average across districts with usable comparative-cost values, adjusted on the same basis. The stacked bar shows proposed General Fund operating revenue sources; grants, debt service, and transfers can make all-funds totals differ. Source: NJDOE User-Friendly Budgets, 2025-26; BLS CPI-U.
