by James McEvoy, Managing Editor
PLUMSTED — Residents living in a home assessed at the township average of $275,900 will pay an additional $138 in taxes as a result of the 2013-14 school budget.
The $23.2 million budget, which relies on a general fund tax levy of $9.9 million, was passed unanimously at the March 21 board meeting.
No residents commented or asked questions on the budget during the public hearing.
The revenues and taxes that support them both increased compared to the 2012-13 $23.02 million budget, which was supported with a general fund tax levy of $9.6 million, increases of approximately $170,000 and $300,000, respectively.
Including the debt service, the total tax levy is increasing by $397,000 or 3.6 percent.
Business administrator and Board Secretary Sean Gately said the budget is utilizing the banked cap option, allowing the board to seek increases over the state-mandated two percent tax levy cap due to not budgeting to the cap in previous year’s budgets.
District officials also noted the impact of security officers on the budget.
Mr. Gately pointed out during the budget presentation that additional security services resulted in $120,000 in budget appropriations.
Without the additional security measures, he said, the tax increase on the average homeowner in Plumsted would have been $96.
Prior to the budget presentation and vote, Superintendent Dr. Karen Jones outlined the use and implementation of the School Resource Officers (SRO).
”I’m very pleased to report that after a time of looking through a number of obstacles and things that the status of the SROs in the district now seems to be moving forward,” Dr. Jones said.
Presently, there are three such officers in the district, she said, noting one of the three is still in training.
The other officers will serve two schools each – one serving the primary and elementary schools with the others serving the middle and high schools.
”We’re going to be working out schedules for actual times in both buildings,” she said. “They’re both very excited as we are and things are moving along right now.”
The budget also includes a new world language instructor as well as various new and expanding academic programs and staff development.
Mr. Gately also lamented state aid issues as well as potential impact of the federal budget sequestration on district finances.
”State aid went up a whopping $275,” he said, later emphasizing while the district has returned to 2009 state aid amounts more or less, Plumsted is actually losing $40,000 if one calculates the assessment that the state charged for previous grants given to the district.
”They don’t show it on the revenue side, they make us show it on the expenditure side and that’s where it’s represented,” he said.
Specifically regarding the sequester, Mr. Gately said, there is the potential that impact aid would be eliminated, which is where the district gets a majority of its fund balance.
”This is part of what the board has done in terms of crafting a budget is how do we plan to use impact aid by keeping both the tax levy flat or minimal increases, but also planning for what happens if impact aid goes away,” he said.
In addition, the sequestration is expected to impact federal grant monies including funds from the No Child Left Behind Act.
Mr. Gately said the state Department of Education is telling districts to budget less, anticipating cutbacks in funding.

