In a break from most years past, the Evesham Township Board of Education did not vote on the annual tentative budget at its February meeting on Feb. 26.
However, at the meeting, Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. did give a budget presentation similar to the community budget presentations he gave earlier in the month, with the added component of state aid numbers, which Gov. Christie released several days before.
If the board were to pass the 2015–2016 school year budget as of Scavelli’s Feb. 26 presentation with no further changes, an Evesham resident with an average assessed home valued at $270,500 would see their yearly K-8 school tax bill increase by about $49.
That $49 is a $3.70 decrease from the $52.70 yearly increase Scavelli originally presented earlier in the month and is a result of a nearly $40,000 increase in the amount of state aid the district will receive, in addition to other minor reductions made in the budget between what was originally presented and what was presented at the Feb. 26 meeting.
Although school boards have until mid-March to approve tentative budgets and submit them to the county, the Evesham BOE typically passes its tentative budget at its February meeting, which is usually several days after the governor releases yearly state aid numbers.
Scavelli said that vote did not happen at the February meeting this year as the board may have to use banked cap in this year’s budget — something it has not done before.
“Banked cap, we haven’t had to go there, and on the money end, I would want the board, especially when they’re voting on it, I would want them to at least feel comfortable in understanding why it is and that whole process,” he said.
Banked cap is the process by which state law allow districts to use savings from recent budget years to exceed the 2 percent cap on yearly tax increases if a district was under that cap in previous years, up to three years’ time.
Scavelli also said another reason the board was waiting to pass the tentative budget was the hope of bringing the tax levy further down, as it had done between the first community presentation and the presentation at the most recent board meeting.
“We wanted to give ourselves a little more time to get more information as a school district and be able to hopefully get it down as far as we can,” Scavelli said. “So really it’s just to give us some more time.”
Typically, the biggest portion of the budget’s general fund appropriations is staff salaries and benefits, and this year is no different, with about $44.9 million going toward salaries and another nearly $14.2 million going toward benefits.
At 83 percent of the budget, Scavelli said that was about average for school districts, as it is a labor-intensive industry.
Scavelli also cited another difference between this year and last in a lower number of retirements.
“I’m certainly not encouraging people to do this, I’d never do that, but last year we did have a lot of retirements…this year so far at the professional staff we have six, and that’s probably about a third of where we were last year at this time,” Scavelli said.
Scavelli said with retirements, there is a certain amount of “breakage,” meaning the difference between what the previous employee was being paid and what a new employee would be paid.
The board is scheduled to vote on the tentative budget at a special meeting on Tuesday, March 17 at DeMasi Middle School.
