A home in Tabernacle assessed at the average of $297,849 can expect an $18.22 local tax levy increase based on the approved 2012–13 Tabernacle School District budget, according to school officials.
Local property taxes are being raised by $65,000 more than in the current budget.
“It’s a one percent tax increase. We feel that’s fair,” said Business Administrator and Board Secretary Chad Fires. “The couple prior years, there’s been zero tax increase. A lot of communities have had two percent tax increases consistently for the past two to three years.”
The total operating budget for 2012–13 is $13,201,340.
The budget was presented on Wednesday, March 28 at a public hearing in the Olson Middle School Media Center.
“It was a group effort,” Fires said. He and Superintendent George Rafferty primarily presented.
Forty-one percent of the budget is funded through state aid, said Fires.
The tax levy, fund balance, tuition and miscellaneous make up the rest.
Miscellaneous costs add up to $60,009.
According to Fires, the largest miscellaneous item is $37,000 that goes to the Sequoia Alternative School that the district owns, but Lenape District runs.
“The other comes from investment income,” such as interest the district earns, and pay-to-play sports, he said.
According to the presentation, the budgeted money will go toward instruction, support services, capital expenditures, federal programs and the repayment of debt.
Salaries comprise 61 percent of the operating budget, and insurance and benefits take another 21.5 percent.
As explained in the presentation, positives toward the budget process include shared-services agreements for the supervisor of curriculum and special education and job reductions due to retirements.
As part of the budget, the guidance program in the district is being enhanced to include one full-time employee at each school.
“We’re going to bring that up to par,” he said.
Technology is also being brought up to speed, according to Rafferty.
“Steve Jobs created a different landscape in technology going forward,” he said.
The desktop computer used to be the status quo, he said.
“Schools were eating these things up,” he explained. “Now, with the iPad and some of these other devices that have been created, the SmartBoard… the projectors that we use for interactive lessons, we’re at a point where we’re looking at our technology.”
“We’ve budgeted money for next year for updating technology, but we’re not going to put our eggs all in one basket,” he said.
With so many different options, Rafferty wants to enhance teaching and learning, and not with tools that are collecting dust.
Class size is listed as a challenge in the presentation.
“We try to keep a certain number in class sizes,” said Fires. “The smaller class sizes, the better educational environment.”
With smaller class sizes, the district needs to hire more teachers, which tack on more salaries and benefit packages, he said. With more classes, more classrooms are needed, which would contribute to custodial costs and more technology would be needed.
From kindergarten to fourth-grade, the average class size is 18 students, said Rafferty.
In middle school, the class sizes are currently larger at approximately 24 students per class, dependent on multiple factors including the class level and subject, he said.
As the board looks at the issue of class sizes, said Rafferty, “they wanted to try to accomplish lower class sizes in the lower grades as much as possible. They’ve accomplished that goal.”
The challenge is going to be maintaining that, he said. After next year, sacrifices might need to be made in some grade levels.
The amount of personnel depends on the amount of pupils, he said. Reduced staff through attrition after 2012–13 might be a reality.
“We want to be responsive and proactive to future financial challenges that we face,” said Rafferty. “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there.”
As Rafferty completes his first year as superintendent — combined with the other new staff on board — “the biggest challenge was all of us working together as a team to try to make sure that all the areas of the school that each of us are responsible for are accounted for.”
The goals listed in the presentation include providing a thorough and efficient education, meeting financial changes, achieving educational initiatives and attaining district goals such as student achievement and teacher performance.
Similar to other districts, Tabernacle hopes to “align curriculum and educational programming with the Common Core State Standards,” according to the presentation.
To enhance student learning from a young age, full day kindergarten is going into effect as a budget neutral change for the 2012–13 school year.
“It really came down to whether or not the school, the board of education and the school community wanted to have it in Tabernacle,” said Rafferty.
With staff and room space already in place, “the board approved it,” he said.
“We’ll be able to give our students the best education that we can give them.”
The school budget is effective from July 1 to June 30, 2013. Since the district agreed to move its elections to November — and since the budget comes in under the 2 percent tax increase cap — residents will not have to vote on the budget.
“We’re trying to keep the taxpayers pocketbooks in mind as we build these budgets but also continue the same level of education that the community has come to expect out of this school district,” said Fires.
