SPRING LAKE — The Spring Lake Board of Education approved its budget for the 2024-2025 school year following an April 29 public hearing.
The budget amounts to $10,992,530, which includes a $2,834,625 withdrawal from capital reserve to replace unit ventilators throughout the school as well as 12 cabinet heaters in the hallways and stairwells.
The school tax rate will remain the same as last year at 0.108 for every $100 of assessed value. Based on Spring Lake’s average assessed value of $3,134,990, the average resident would pay $3,376 for their school taxes, a $19 increase from last year, which Board President Noelle Giblin attributed solely to a rise in the average assessed value of Spring Lake homes.
Giblin said that this is the fourth consecutive year that the board of education has not raised its tax rate.
Based on the estimated tax revenue, the budget is funded by $6,813,278 in taxes to be raised and $4,179,252 in anticipated revenue.
State aid is expected to decrease 5.7%, or $15,725. The total budgeted state aid is $310,911, including $50,000 for extraordinary aid (to accommodate students with significant disabilities), which is half the amount of previous years.
The budget also accounts for 85% of last year’s federal aid, which Superintendent Stephen LaValva said was recommended by the Department of Education.
He said that the district will maintain its current programming. Included in the budget is funding for curricular revisions as well as the district’s part time guidance counselor, Michelle Mason, who was previously paid for by ESSER funds (state funding due to COVID-19) but will now be paid through the budget.
The proposed annual expenditures, which amount to $8,157,905, represent a decrease from last year’s $8,427,745.
The budget also includes “allocations for development of additional support and programing to address student interpersonal behaviors” and “tailored professional development.”
The district will switch over to Genesis for its student information system, as well as construct a new website, both moves that LaValva said would make the district’s systems more accessible on mobile devices. Replacement of faculty desktops and tech lab improvements will continue into the second phase.
Of the anticipated nearly $3 million that will be withdrawn from capital reserve to fund the unit ventilator and cabinet heater replacements, the school district can be reimbursed for 40% of the project cost by the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA) through a regular operating district grant.
LaValva said that the project, which has already been approved by the SDA, will not necessarily cost the entire estimated amount, in which case the reimbursement amount would be less accordingly.
Other reserve withdrawals include a $28,792 withdrawal from the emergency reserve account to install more security cameras around H.W. Mountz Elementary School. The board also approved the submission of a $2,000 grant application for the 2024 Safety Grant Program through the district’s insurance group.
Funds amounting to $67,000 that were placed into the tuition reserve account during the 2022-2023 school year will be withdrawn as required to help pay for tuition for Manasquan High School (MHS).
Other capital improvement projects that LaValva said would be undertaken include financing the replacement of the school’s 20-year-old boilers, which will be helped with a grant from New Jersey Natural Gas, enhancing the school’s 20-year-old elevator, weatherproofing the 1921 north and east walls and sandblasting and painting the courtyard walls and fire escape stairs.
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