After months of calculations, decision making and adjustments, the Evesham Township School District Board of Education approved the 2015–2016 budget at its April 28 meeting.
For an Evesham homeowner with a house valued at the average assessed value of $270,500, annual K-8 school taxes will increase $37.58.
All members of the board present at the meeting approved the budget, including board president Joseph Fisicaro Jr., board vice president Joseph M. De Julius and board members Trish Everhart, Joanne Harmon, Lisa Mansfield, Elaine Barbagiovanni and Nichole Stone.
Board members Sandy Student and Kevin Stone were absent from the meeting.
With the total operating budget set at $77.91 million, including debt service obligations, the total operating budget is virtually unchanged from the tentative budget the board approved and submitted to the county in March.
However, as Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. explained in a presentation at the April 28 meeting, what is different between the budget originally submitted to the county and the budget approved at the board’s most recent meeting are some of the projects contained within.
When Scavelli first showed members of the public tentative budget information in February, it included funds to expand the district’s tier III gifted and talented program, the hiring of two new tier III gifted and talented teachers for a pullout program, additional technology software and support programs, and an additional building computer technician.
With those new additions, the budget Scavelli presented in February had an expected tax levy increase of $52.70 for the average assessed home, and would have necessitated the use of bank cap — the process in which school districts can bypass the state mandated 2 percent yearly tax increase cap if a district was underneath that cap in the previous three years.
A district can “bank” that difference for use in future years, a method the ETSD has never used despite being under the 2 percent tax increase cap in the past.
Despite that original plan to use bank cap, before approving the tentative budget in March, the board’s finance committee decided against using bank cap, causing the removal of the tier III gifted and talented program and technology expansions.
At the April 28 meeting, Scavelli announced tier III gifted program expansions were now back in the budget, along with some of the new technology projects, without the use of bank cap and without an increase of the tax levy presented with the tentative budget in March.
“It was clear that it was not going to be a successful thing for us to use bank cap, so we did eliminate originally the tier III gifted and talented program — the expansion of that and the additional teachers, and we were able to get those back in,” Scavelli said.
District business administrator John Recchinti said the expansions could be added back into the budget as the newest budget used a withdrawal from capital reserve and additional budgeted fund balance, and there was an increase from Evesham Child Care fees, student club and activity participation and an increase in state E-Rate program funding.
Money was also saved as additional faculty members submitted retirements and resignations, there was reeducation in the necessary child study team evaluations, and a new contract allowed a reduction in the funds spent on contracted transportation services.
“If you’ve heard us speak before, you know this is an ongoing process. This is something that is happening with everything we do, so it just never really ends, and most people don’t realize it,” Scavelli said.
Upon adoption of the budget, Scavelli and several board members thanked those on the board, as well as the administrative staff, teachers and faculty and the public for any work or suggestions that went toward completion of the final budget.
