SPRING LAKE — The Spring Lake Board of Education adopted its 2025 to 2026 budget, totaling $8,159,097, at its meeting Monday night.
This year’s school tax rate based on $100 of assessed value is .095, a decrease of .013 from last year’s 0.108. There would be a $116 decrease in the annual tax bill for the average assessed house. The average assessed home value in Spring Lake is $3,418,180.
Taxes to be raised this year are $6,298,854, which is an approximate $500,000 decrease from previous years. This reflects a 7.6% decrease from last year’s school tax levy.
State aid has decreased by 3%, totaling budgeted state aid as $283,084, which includes $50,000 for extraordinary aid (to accommodate students with significant disabilities), which is half the amount of previous years.
This year’s federal aid totals $77,600, which is 85% of the amount received last year.
Total expenditures from the general fund are $7,887,336. According to the budget presentation, under this budget, the district “maintains all current educational, co-curricular and athletic programing, funding for curricular revisions and updates to align/exceed state standards, maintains staffing necessary to offer existing programming and tailored professional development.”
Superintendent Stephen LaValva said, “Our general fund appropriations, with the capital improvements, go into our regular education instruction. This pays for salaries for our teachers and other instructional supplies, etc. Tuition is for our students who attend Manasquan High School and other public schools, employee benefits at 15%, and we have that large capital outlay at 10%.”
The general fund appropriations include a $67,000 withdrawal from tuition reserve account, necessary for paying tuition obligations for students who attend Manasquan High School.
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