Ceresnak is new schools chief

Kurt Ceresnak is the new superintendent of the Byram Township School District.

He took over Friday, March 14 from interim Superintendent Joseph Kraemer, who was appointed last July after former Superintendent John Fritzky left for the same position in the Andover Regional School District.

Fritzky had held the top job in Byram since 2020.

Ceresnak has been principal of Netcong Elementary School for nearly six years. He previously was an assistant principal/supervisor of technology in Teaneck and a principal in Cliffside Park and Lakewood.

At the Board of Education meeting Jan. 15, members approved a contract through June 30, 2029, with Ceresnak. His annual salary is $156,000.

At the board’s meeting March 12, board president Julie Lucente thanked Kraemer for being more than a paper-pusher as interim superintendent. “You went well, well, well above and beyond that. You became a Laker, and you followed our core values.”

The board introduced a proposed budget for the 2025-26 school year. A public hearing and final vote will be May 7.

The proposed budget of $17.75 million maintains the current curriculum and staffing level. The tax levy would increase 2 percent to $13.8 million.

State aid is $2.6 million, an increase of $42,000 from a year earlier. Grants total $201,000.

The proposed budget uses slightly more than $1 million from the fund balance, “which is not ideal” but was necessary to balance the budget, said business administrator Theresa Radline.

“We’re looking to try to make sure that we end the year with a little bit of surplus to make sure that we’re balancing that out,” she said.

After-school programs also will continue as they were this year, Kraemer said.

Radline pointed out that the district’s average annual tax levy increase since 2013 is 1.66 percent. “That’s really not bad.”

To make up for the loss of state aid in recent years, “we’re now trying to play a little bit of catch-up.”

Since 2019, Byram has lost $1.2 million in state aid, Kraemer noted.

Facility improvements

He pointed out that the district made many facility improvements this year after they had been neglected for years.

“Fire alarm systems have been going off” in the middle of the night and local fire departments have been responding to them for years, he said. Those are being replaced.

“Initial facility repairs that are absolutely needed are being done and have been supported by this board.”

The district is waiting for final inspections to determine if it must replace a 24-passenger bus.

Kraemer said the district has arranged for shared services with other districts and the township and is working on more.

The current enrollment is 805 students; the projected enrollment for next year is 830.

”I would love to see preschool numbers go up,” he added. “I’d love to fill those classes.”