The district is looking at an immediate loss of about $815,000 in state aid.
The Evesham Township School District is looking at a combined loss of about $9 million in state aid by the 2024–2025 school year.
Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. outlined those numbers at a special ETSD Board of Education meeting this week, where the board also passed a resolution to deal with an immediate loss of about $815,000 in state aid that was already budgeted for the 2018–2019 school year.
The loss comes as Gov. Murphy recently signed a new school funding bill that caused “underfunded” school districts in the state to gain more in state aid and “overfunded” districts in the state to lose aid.
The ETSD is considered one of the state’s overfunded districts.
In the past, Scavelli said the determination is mainly driven by increases or decreases in a district’s municipal property wealth (ratables), the personal wealth of residents within a municipality and student enrollment changes in a district.
Despite the immediate loss of more than $815,000 in state aid, the board passed a resolution outlining a plan to maintain appropriations already budgeted for the 2018–2019 school year.
The district will raise the money by increasing the amount of unassigned general fund surplus used from its original budget by $477,227 and filing a request with the commissioner of education to grant approval to withdraw $338,000 from the district’s emergency reserve.
“We have a plan for the year and we’re not looking to cut anything that we’re doing right now because we’re already into the year,” Scavelli said. “There’s too much happening that we can’t undo at this point.”
Scavelli said the district would also be applying to the state for additional emergency aid in light of the fiscal distress the district believes will result from the overall reduction of the ETSD’s state aid.
“I feel we have nothing to lose by doing that,” Scavelli said. “If we don’t ask, the answer is ‘no.’ If we ask, we have the possibility of getting a ‘yes’ and getting something back.”
Looking toward the future, if the current law remains in place, Scavelli said the district is estimated to lose an additional $689,000 for the 2019–2020 school year, lose an additional 861,000 for the 2020–2021 school year and then continue to lose money until the 2024–2025 school year where the district would have lost a combined total of about $9 million.
Yet Scavelli also noted each year state aid is recalculated based on any changes to the township’s ratables, enrollment and personal income of residents at the time.
“If there’s something that affects it one way or the other, it could get a little less, it could get a little bit more. Those numbers won’t be exactly the same each year. They will adjust with the information.”
When looking at how to approach the next several years, Scavelli said the district would handle budgets one year at a time.
“We have to keep an eye on the future, but we can’t have the answers to 2024–2025 right now,” Scavelli said. “We’ve got to get through 2018–2019 and plan for 2019–2020.”
