The Shamong Township School District’s tentative budget sent to the county superintendent is pointing toward higher taxes for residents.
On March 17, the board of education approved a tentative budget for the 2015–2016 school year that includes a tax increase of $100.80 on the $308,080 average assessed value of homes in Shamong Township with a total tax rate of $1.3989 per $100 of assessed value.
The tax levy from township residents last year was $8.19 million. The total tax levy increase for this year is $418,248.
The board of education adopted an operating budget of $13.75 million, an increase of $360,458 from last year.
The school district continues the plan to raise achievement for all students, continue development of curriculum according to adopted standards, continue business efficiency and continue the learning, teaching and assessment process through Achieve NJ, according to district officials.
According to business administrator Marie Goodwin, all existing programs will remain in the 2015–2016 budget.
“The district will be completing $2 million of capital projects over the summer months. This was funded through School Development Authority Grants and a lease purchase agreement budgeted in the 2015–2016 budget,” Goodwin said.
A new reading program called “Journeys” is budgeted for the third and fourth grade. The Journeys program is a core reading program designed to meet the diverse needs of all students, from kindergarten through grade six. It includes the key elements of reading instruction, from comprehension to decodable readers.
Journeys was piloted this school year in the fifth grade and is used by many neighboring districts. The Journeys program is aligned to the Common Core Standards and provides centralized resources.
In other news:
• All current teaching positions are also budgeted for in 2015–2016. No new positions will be added for next year.
• There were contractual salary increases, health-care costs increased, and increases were budgeted for gas and electric.
• There are five capital projects targeted for completion over the summer. At IMMS, the district will be replacing exterior doors and security upgrades. At IMS, it will be replacing windows in the second grade wing, as well as doing security upgrades and putting air conditioning in the instructional areas. These capital projects are being funded through the 15–16 budget as well as grant money from the School Development Authority, Goodwin said.
