Evesham BOE adopts tentative 2015–2016 school year budget, average home to see annual tax increase of $37.60
The Evesham Township School District Board of Education approved its 2015–2016 tentative budget and has submitted it to the county.
With total tentative appropriations set at about $70.95 million, if the budget remains unchanged between now and its final adoption at the end of April, the average Evesham homeowner with a home valued at $270,500 would see their annual K-8 school tax bill increase $37.60.
The total tax levy will make up about $54.75 million of the $70.95 million budget, with about another $13.66 million coming from state aid and the rest raised through miscellaneous revenues and budgeted fund balance.
The $37.60 annual increase for the average homeowner is a drop from the $52.70 originally proposed at a preliminary budget community information meeting in early February.
Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. said the drop is a result of the board’s finance committee deciding to eliminate the use of banked cap and holding off on several new additions to the district.
According to Scavelli, eliminated from the budget were two new gifted and talented teachers for the district’s gifted and talented program, a new computer technician, a replacement maintenance vehicle and technology infrastructure upgrades.
“Right now, those things are out the budget unless we can find another way to fund them without using bank cap, so that’s kind of where we are right now,” he said.
Banked cap is the method through which the state allows school districts to increase the tax levy of annual school budgets above the 2 percent state-mandated increase cap if districts were under the cap with previous budgets, up to three years.
According to Scavelli, the ETSD has never used banked cap.
The majority of the money spent in the 2015–2016 budget will go toward staff salaries and employee benefits, to the tune of $44.72 million and $14.18 million, respectively, making up about 83 percent of the general fund budget.
In the past, Scavelli has said that 83 percent number is about what most school districts spend on employee salaries and benefits, as school districts are labor-intensive industries.
At its most recent meeting, the board also decided to hold the public hearing and final adoption for the budget on Tuesday, April 28.
This year, law requires public hearings for budgets to take place between place between April 24 and May 7.
As the Evesham BOE’s regularly scheduled April meeting was set to take place on April 23, the board opted to combine the two meetings for April 28.
“Hopefully, we’ll have some good updates for the end of the month in April, too,” Scavelli said. “We’ll hope for the best.”
