The tentative budget for the 2016–2017 school year was approved and submitted to the state after last week’s Shamong Board of Education meeting.
Much to the chagrin of board secretary Marie Goodwin, state aid will be staying flat again this year.
“We are fortunate they are keeping it flat,” Goodwin said, “In the future, I don’t feel like they’re going to be able to do that.”
Goodwin was pleased to present that the total operating budget only increased by 1.18 percent. However, this does not include the debt service aspect of the budget, which is the reason for the 2.81 percent increase in the tax rate, which results in an annual increase in K-8 school taxes of $120.95 for the average assessed home in Shamong of $308,080.
The debt owed by the district is in large part due to the unauthorized early retirement plan from more than a decade ago. This issue surfaced about a year ago when the state Division of Pensions and Benefits, which oversees all pensions and benefits for public employees, argued that Shamong’s early retirement benefits program was never properly approved by the state, and therefore the district now owes the state money.
The program was approved by the Shamong BOE in November 2004 to incentivize early retirement of employees in the district to save money. However, New Jersey court cases in the past have interpreted state statute to mean that boards of education cannot negotiate early retirement incentive programs without first having state approval.
The board plans to use its $200,000 of bank cap to put toward this. The pension liability in total will be $646,817, so this $200,000 payment will only cover a portion of the penalty. Without this penalty, the tax rate increase would have been less than 1 percent for this year.
In other news:
• Five students from the Indian Mills Memorial School participated in the 33rd South Jersey Elementary Festival Choral Concert on March 5.
• Superintendent Christine Vespe announced the school district calendar for next year will be completely in line with the Lenape Regional High School District calendar for the first time ever upon ratification from the STEA.
• Indian Mills Memorial School held its annual winter sports banquet in February. This year’s banquet was a particularly special celebration because both the boys and girls basketball teams won the Eastern Burlington County Basketball League Championships. The girls team finished with an undefeated record. The cheerleading team also made headlines as it competed in its members’ first competition and finished second out of 31 schools. This is the first time the cheer team has competed since 2001.
