Preliminary school budget would raise taxes 1.79%

The preliminary budget for the Vernon Township School District would increase the tax levy 1.79 percent.

The Board of Education on March 16 approved sending its tentative 2023-24 budget to the County Executive Superintendent for approval.

The spending plan totals about $66.6 million, a 6.88 percent decrease from a year earlier. The district expects a $3.4 million drop in revenue from last year.

Superintendent Russell Rogers said the district aims to cut its work force by 40 full- and part-time employees, although it is too soon to tell where those cuts would be made.

“This budget process has been the most difficult process in my 28 years in education,” he said. “Our focus will continue to be on providing a thorough and efficient education for our students.”

The district expects a $256,288 decrease in state aid, and a much larger decline in stabilization aid carried over from 2021-22.

“This year, we carried over a big lump of stabilization aid,” Business Administrator Patricia Radcliffe-Lee said. “We were very fortunate to get stabilization aid in 2021-22, and it came in near the end of the year and we didn’t use much of it in 21-22. So, we carried it over and we were able to use it.”

The district carried $5,746,571 into 2022-23. It plans to use $2 million in 2023-24.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll have $2 million left to carry over into 23-24,” Radcliffe-Lee said. “That’s part of the reason we’re trying to reduce expenses as much as possible this year because we were counting on having money to carry into 2023-24.”

The tax levy increase is at a maximum of 1.79 percent because the district was required to refund $94,289, which it saved from the educators health plan.

“The state says you take it away from last year’s tax levy and come up with an adjusted levy,” Radcliffe-Lee said. “That’s what you apply the 2 percent increase to.”

Capital projects

The district budgeted $3 million from its capital reserve fund for several projects, including windows at Vernon Township High School and Glen Meadow School. But those projects were postponed when the bids came in higher than expected.

The Glen Meadow bridge and balconies are already in progress.

The district also postponed resurfacing the tennis courts.

The unused money will be returned to the capital reserve fund, while the district applies for grants to supplement capital reserve money for the postponed projects.

The state’s Consumer Price Index is 5.86 percent heading into 2023-24, making that the minimum increase to renew the bus contracts. Either side could opt not to renew, forcing the district to go out to bid for transportation.

The CPI for 2022-23 was 1.91 percent, which the bus companies declined, forcing a rebid. All the bids came back higher than 1.91 percent, causing the transportation budget to have cost overruns and leading to the recent elimination of the 5:30 p.m. late bus at the high school.

“Our transportation costs are going up 5.86 percent over what we’re paying now,” Radcliffe-Lee said. “When we have a reduction in state aid and less than 2 percent increase in taxes, something’s got to give.”

Rogers said the district is suffering because of a decrease in state aid. The district is entering the sixth year of a nearly $10 million reduction in state aid.

He urged district taxpayers to urge state legislators to change the school-funding formula.

School board member Jennifer Pellet said the cuts are coming now instead of two years ago because the administration had obtained stabilization aid in the past two years.

“Our goal has always been and continues to be preserving the student programs while navigating the journey that we’ve been put on by the governor, who in his infinite wisdom feels that $14 million is an appropriate amount of state funding with which to run this district,” she said.

“That takeaway is forcing us to make these decisions. Nobody at this table is happy about it, but we really don’t have the option of saying ‘no,’ since this is the hand we’ve been dealt by our governor.”