The Medford Township Public Schools Board of Education passed its tentative budget for the 2016–17 school year at last week’s meeting.
Medford residents will potentially be looking at a 1.46-cent increase on the tax levy, resulting in a K-8 school tax increase of $47.89 on a home assessed at the township average of $327,600, which amounts to $4 more per month.
Every penny the district raises the tax rate results in $298,510 of revenue for the budget.
The increase in the budget will cover all contractual salaries, the 5 percent increase in medical benefits, new elementary school science programming and materials, elementary and middle school literacy materials, summer curriculum writing projects and building level technology upgrades.
“Technology plays such an important role in the support of curriculum,” Superintendent Joe Del Rossi said. “Our goal is to embed technology into instruction.”
To help ensure this goal be accomplished without any bumps in the road, the board plans to add an educational technology coordinator this year. The position is being implemented to provide leadership for the embedding of technology into classroom instruction.
The new technology coordinator will help guide teachers through this process of enhancing the curriculum.
To help supply the students and staff with the tools necessary to succeed, the strategic planning committee is looking into a Chromebook initiative that will eventually roll out enough Chromebooks over a period of time to be in every classroom.
As the board continues to bring teaching positions back after the budget cuts in 2009, it has also budgeted to add three new full-time special education teaching positions and one new part-time special education teaching position for 2016–17.
The increased enrollment in special education has created a rising challenge, Del Rossi said.
“I think I speak for most of my colleagues in Burlington County when I refer to the increasing costs for the increasing special education needs,” Del Rossi said.
The budget has been sent to the county for approval. The board will be holding a public hearing of the approved budget before finalizing it.
Del Rossi said the board will continue to work on these numbers year round by persistently examining revenues and anticipating needs for the upcoming year.
“Joe and I create our maintenance budget to not only address our current needs, but to address things on the horizon,” Business Administrator Chad Fires said.
