The Washington Township Board of Education is looking for experienced community members to join its business committee and help generate budget savings and revenue.
A flyer about the committee is posted on the school district website. The school system will continue to see increased costs and will struggle to meet these demands with limited budget increases due to the tax levy cap, according to the objective of the committee, whose members offer ideas on cutting costs.
School Superintendent Eric Hibbs noted in a letter to the community in May that the township has been facing significant financial challenges as it develops a 2024-’25 district budget: a $9-million reduction in state aid since 2015; increases in benefits, salary, health care, transportation and tuition expenses; and literally everything else in the district that now costs more.
The board of education has empowered the business committee to create a task force that will offer financial ideas and input. With it, the committee looks to include experienced community members, as defined below, who may be able to provide valuable ideas and feedback regarding costs over the next three years.
The task force will also include a representative from township council to consider potential shared services and other ideas that may benefit both the district and the town. The committee includes the superintendent and the district’s business administrator.
Qualifications to join the task force may include degrees in business, accounting, technology and law; experience in managing budgets, expenses, process improvement or cost containment; experience with public, nonprofit budgets and revenue generation; experience with grant writing and/or working with shared services; and knowledge of state education funding requirements, challenges and opportunities.
Members will be asked to participate in up to six planning sessions between now and December. They should prepare to allocate two hours to prepare for each task force session, two hours each for actual meetings and two hours of follow-up.
Besides the goals of identifying potential budget and revenue savings, the task force will explore community partnerships; obtain community feedback on cost savings alternatives; and increase public transparency and understanding of the budget process.
Current district employees – other than the superintendent, business administrator and or any other employee deemed a necessary and pertinent member of the committee (at the board’s discretion) – are prohibited from joining the task force.
Interested community members must send a resume and/or letter of interest by Aug. 21. For more information, contact Lori Reese at (856) 589-6644, ext. 6502, or visit www.wtps.org.
