For an Evesham home at the average assessed value of $270,500, the budget would increase ETSD taxes by $51.29.
The Evesham Township School District has released preliminary figures for the 2018–2019 school year budget.
Similar to past years, the district held a public information session this week to review the upcoming budget, as well as answer questions from members of the public.
Total appropriations for the preliminary budget are set at $77.8 million, with no planned cuts to any programs or staff. Class sizes would also be maintained at current levels.
The budget features a 1.9-cent tax rate increase per every $100 of assessed property value. For an Evesham home at the average assessed value of $270,500, the budget would increase ETSD taxes by $51.29.
However, as Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. noted at this week’s meeting, the budget will not be finalized until May.
When recalling the budget process from past years, Scavelli said the district’s proposed tax levy increases tend to shrink between the time when preliminary budget information is released and when the board of education adopts a final budget several months later.
“I think it’s safe to say, as long as state aid is stable and flat, we should hopefully get that number (the tax increase for the average homeowner) into the 40s by the time we’re done,” Scavelli said.
Scavelli also noted the average increase in taxes for homeowners during the last eight to nine years of district budgets has been about $55.
As with past budgets, Scavelli said the majority of appropriations in the preliminary budget, about 81.1 percent, will go toward salaries and benefits for staff.
Due to the labor-intensive nature of staffing school districts, Scavelli said the percentage was in line with budgets in other districts.
The preliminary budget is also based on the expectation that state aid will remain flat, around $13.7 million for the district, as it has for the past several years.
Scavelli said the budget also includes about $2.5 million in miscellaneous revenue from sources others than the tax levy or state aid, such as tuition programs or the rent of Evans School.
In the 2010–2011 school year budget, miscellaneous revenue was about $890,000.
“I really do challenge anybody to find another K-8 district like us that has about $2.5 million in miscellaneous revenue,” Scavelli said.
As with last year’s final budget, the preliminary budget also continues to set aside $250,000 for the district’s School Resource Officer program, which has officers from the Evesham Township Police Department stationed at schools in the district at various times of the day.
Some other expenditures in the preliminary budget include technology upgrades such as new interactive whiteboards, security cameras and Chromebooks, the continued replacement of school buses and maintenance vehicles and updating social studies resources and materials.
Scavelli said he would review the preliminary budget for the public again at the BOE’s next meeting on Feb. 22.
Scavelli said Gov. Murphy is anticipated to give his budget address on March 13, with state aid figures usually released two days later.
If that timeline holds true, Scavelli said the board might be able to approve its tentative budget at the BOE’s March 15 meeting.
The board would then approve its final budget on May 3.
