Evesham’s Council announced several weeks ago the township would no longer be footing the bill for the program starting next year.
Evesham’s Board of Education ended its budget work session last night with no clear answer on how the district might fund the $500,000 the township is requiring to keep seven, full-time police officers stationed throughout each of the district’s school buildings next year.
Evesham’s council members announced several weeks ago that while council believed in the merits and results of the school resource officer program, the township would no longer be footing the bill.
Council cited the size of the district’s $74.9 million budget being more than double township’s budget, and how council was unaware of any neighboring townships paying for officers stationed in their local schools, including the Lenape Regional High School District, which fully funds the nearly $280,000 required to keep two, full-time resource officers at Cherokee High School.
Although council funded the entirety of the SRO program for the K-8 district this year, the program began as a shared services agreement between the district and township in 2015 to share four, part-time officers.
The program only expanded to full-day coverage throughout all school buildings in late 2015 after police responded to an incident at Van Zant Elementary School where a juvenile spotted with a replica gun resulted in a school lockdown.
Council later decided to pay for the entirety of the program for the 2016–2017 school year in an attempt to separate the issue of funding the expanded SRO program from the board’s discussions on closing Evans Elementary School.
During the BOE’s budget workshop last night, Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. outlined several scenarios for funding the school resource officer program next year as he detailed updated figures for 2017–2018 school year budget that had changed since the board adopted its tentative budget in March.
Scavelli said an increase in full-day kindergarten tuition and a decrease in staffing costs, along with other small factors, had led to a decrease in the budget’s overall tax levy, dropping this year’s increase for the average Evesham homeowner from the figure presented in March of $81.22 to a new figure of $74.67.
However, Scavelli noted those numbers were based on a budget in which the district did not contribute any funding to the SRO program.
Scavelli said if the district were to fund the entity of the SRO program at a cost of $505,675, it would bring the tax increase for the average Evesham homeowner to $87.76 and stop the district from accruing banked cap funds this year.
By state law, school districts may only increase their local tax levy by 2 percent each year. If districts are under that 2 percent cap, they can “bank” the remaining amount, and in future years raise the tax levy above 2 percent cap equal to the banked amount. Unused banked cap expires after three years.
Leading up to the decision to close Evans, Scavelli noted part of the reason to close the school would be to save enough money to lower future tax levy increases and build banked cap to handle future predicted shortfalls.
Scavelli also outlined a scenario he had originally presented to the township before council had decided to put no funding toward the SRO program where the district would pay 25 percent toward the SRO program, with the board potentially phasing in the entire cost of program during the next several years.
Under that scenario, Scavelli said the tax levy increase this year for the average homeowner would have been at $77.91.
Several board members also spoke about the issue of the SRO program during the meeting.
Board member Elaine Barbagiovanni said she believed the township should be pay the entire cost of the program, as the school district had already done its part to provide safety for children by implementing lockdown procedures and other safety measures.
“We’re probably one of the only K-8 districts that have so many police officers — I know it’s wonderful and I’m not saying anything against it, I think it’s very nice that we have it. I think the township should continue to pay for it,” Barbagiovanni said.
Board member Joseph Fisicaro Jr. also questioned why council couldn’t continue to pay for the program, citing the multiple PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) the township had accepted for development projects where the township received the full payment and the district did not receive any tax monies.
“They’re getting revenue we can’t get … they’re getting some really nice donations,” Fisicaro said.
The public hearing and final adoption of the 2017–2018 school year budget will be held on May 4 at DeMasi Middle School starting at 7 p.m.
