Evesham residents now have some updated tentative numbers for what they could be paying in school taxes for the 2014–2015school year.
Evesham School District Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. gave a presentation on the tentative budget at the Feb. 27 board of education meeting and said with final state aid numbers increasing .65 percent, total preliminary appropriations for 2014–2015 budget were $70,111,286.
To reach that figure, the district would require a 2.1 percent tax levy increase. With an aver-age home assessment of $270,200,the proposed increase per average household would be $85.02 a year.
The board will be using a health benefits cost waiver to go above the state’s 2 percent cap, and it does not necessitate a separate vote from the budget, officials said.
The board approved a resolution to adopt the tentative budget.
Another topic covered at the meeting related to the Feb. 18 meeting of the Evesham Town-ship Council where a discussion on healthcare benefits concerning the school district took place.
At that meeting, the council held a discussion on the benefits it believed could be achieved by having the school district enter into a shared services agreement with the township regarding the township’s partial self-insurance healthcare plan.
Several school board members attended the Feb. 18 council meeting, and at the school board meeting, those members continued to voice their concerns –especially regarding a private meeting Mayor Randy Brown said took place between the township, some school board members and Anderson, Jackson, and Metts Insurance Management, the company currently running the township’s health insurance plan.
Board member Lisa Mansfield said the board only acted as aboard when all nine of them were together and asked her fellow board members about that private meeting.
“Who attended this meeting, and how did you find out about it?” Mansfield asked.
Board member Dave Silver said he had received some information about the township and its health benefits plan.
“I wouldn’t call it a meeting,” Silver said. “I was called and told we have information for you to look at.”
Scavelli said that neither the township nor its insurance representatives had responded to his requests for information on any tentative proposal or outline they might have.
“We gave them the information two months ago and we have not received anything from them,” Scavelli said.
At the Feb. 18 council meeting, AJM Insurance said it still needed additional information from the school district to put together a formal outline.
In other news:
• At the school board meeting there was also a decision concerning weather-related make-up day revisions to 2013–2014 school calendar.
As of the Feb. 27 meeting the district had five days to make up. If there were no more school cancellations due to weather past Feb. 27, the district was going stick to the following five-day make-up plan:
Day one on Friday, June 20, day two on Friday, April 25, day three on Thursday, April 24, day four on Wednesday, April 23 and day five on Tuesday, April 22.
However, since the district was closed on March 3, the district will move into a six-10 day plan.
With a potential sixth make-up day falling on Monday, June 23, Scavelli reasoned that since the district would already be bringing kids back for that final Monday in June, it would be smarter to also bring kids back for Tuesday, June 24 to return April 22 to a day off and alleviate some of the burden on families trying to deal with plans for the spring break holiday.
Any potential seventh cancellation would reclaim April 22 as a make-up day, with make-up days beyond that following through that final week in June.
Silver said he personally thought teachers and kids would be worse off the longer they went into June. Mansfield called it “a no-win situation” and said either way people would be unhappy.
The schedule as outlined by Scavelli passed 5–2, with Joseph Fisicaro Jr., Trish Everhart, Joanne Harmon, Mansfield and Nichole Stone voting yes, and Joseph M. De Julius and Silver voting no.
• The board also debated waiting to approve the Evesham Township School District mission statement and tagline.
Silver said he had concerns about adopting the mission statement without further input from the district’s marketing and communications consultants. Scavelli countered that the people who crafted the statement followed the process that was in place and delaying adoption would send a bad message.
The debate continued between several board members, with the board ultimately approving the motion to postpone adopting the statement.
