The Berlin Community School hosted a regularly scheduled board of education meeting on March 23, and among topics discussed was a tentative budget for the 2022-2023 school year.
Among good news for the Berlin Borough district is an increase in state aid, up 16.59 percent from the previous year, for a projected total of $5,138,858. That is a $731,393 dollar difference from the 2021-’22 school year, a number that Superintendent Dr. Joseph Campisi was happy to see.
“This number is a very good thing,” he noted. “[Our] district was underfunded for many years. Now that the funding formula is enacted the way it was originally written out, we are receiving the funding that we should have been getting all along.
“One of the things we are increasing the most next year is in curriculum and instruction,” Campisi added. “That’s the most important area and an area that can suffer, particularly when you don’t receive the correct amount of aid.”
The 2022-’23 “sub-total general fund” is projected at $13,549,313, a number that resulted from the local tax levy, state aid, miscellaneous school revenue and fund balance/reserves. It is a projected 0.93 percent over the current school year, with the “fund” at $13,242,246 after adjustments.
The district has a tentative budget projection of $1,147,982 from a special revenue fund[grants/entitlements], up 1.82 percent from the previous year. And tentative projections of $519,750 from the debt service fund[tax levy], this is a 4.55 percent decrease from the previous year.
Among the budget goals and priorities in the presentation was the importance of creating routine replacement cycles and beginning classroom technology upgrades. Campisi noted that with technological advances, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and continue to upgrade when possible.
“We are always budgeting out two or three years ahead of time,” he explained. “As we do things, it’s important that we look at sustainability … One of the things we mapped out is a “replacement cycle”; we are doing that for our iPads now. They have a three- to four-year shelf life, so what we are doing now is setting up a cycle of [proper] teacher work stations, so it’s always up to date.”
The tentative budget was presented by John Scavelli, the Borough’s interim business administrator. He echoed Campisi’s focus on looking ahead to build a strategy for years to come.
“One of the current budget goals and priorities is building a five-year plan, all the way through 2026, and replacing things one at a time, before everything in the building needs to be replaced,” noted Scavelli, who touched on some of the “little things” the school plans to fix.
“One thing in our budget this year is for painting,” he said. “We want to brighten up some of the classrooms and hallways. We’ll bring in our own employees and fix up some spots in the school that could use a bit of help …
“We budget for these things now, so in 10 years, we don’t have to use the whole budget on repainting the entire school, or replacing all the ceiling tiles at once.”
The board also recognized Berlin Community School’s boys basketball and girls soccer teams for their respective Camden County League championships. Each team member was recognized with a trophy and certificate.
“Watching our kids be able to go out there, after all they have been through these past two years, it was an overwhelming sense of normalcy,” Campisi said. “It was so nice to see them all smiling.”
Enrollment is projected to go up again from 806 students to 811, though these projections do not include preschool lottery students and students received from other school districts.
