By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — The budget process at the Montgomery Township School District will commence next week with a special meeting to overview the challenges it faces in tough economic times.
The public meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Upper Middle School Media Center, was coordinated by the board finance and budget committees, said Board Secretary Thomas Venanzi.
Public budget presentations are scheduled for Feb. 26, at the Upper Middle School Media Center; March 11, at the Village Elementary School Cafeteria; and March 25, at the Upper Middle School Media Center. All meetings will begin at 7:30 p.m.
The budget vote will be held on April 15.
Mr. Venanzi said the school district has not been immune to the nation’s economic woes.
”We’re not able to achieve some of the revenues that we had anticipated in the current year budget, so that’s going to have an impact on the our budget for next year,” he said.
At this point, he expects that the district will raise the local tax levy the full 4 percent permitted by law, he said.
”We feel we’ll be able to maintain our programs at that level,” he said. “If we go any lower than that, we’ll probably be looking at some reduction in services.”
It’s too early to lay out a schedule for the process, or to tell when the budget will be completed, he said.
”Since the state has not come out with any type of budget calendar yet, we really don’t know what our timeline is going to be for submission of our budget,” he said.
At a recent Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Earl Kim said that as inflation increases faster than district funding, the district faces a “structural train wreck” in balancing the budget.
However, he said that programs affecting students would be the last to be targeted for budget cuts.

