TINTON FALLS — The Monmouth Regional Board of Education unanimously approved the school district’s $24,353,958 operating budget, down nearly $400,000 from last year.
At the board’s March 26 agenda meeting, district Business Administrator Maria Parry explained that the average tax levy would still be increasing by $382,630, or 2 percent, due primarily to a $663,000 drop in reserve funding.
“At the end of last year, more monies had to be appropriated into capital reserves,” she said.
“I will probably have to do that again this year.”
The district’s $19,514,142 tax levy, up 2 percent, or $382,000, over last year, will fund 80.2 percent of the total budget.
Due to a shift in enrollments from the district’s sending towns, only Eatontown homeowners will see an increase in their school taxes this year, while Tinton Fall and Shrewsbury Township homeowners will actually see a decline.
In Eatontown, residents will now shoulder 43.3 percent of the district’s tax levy, up nearly 2 percent from last year. The tax rate has increased to 41.5 cents per $100 of assessed value, up from 37.3 cents in 2012- 13. On a home valued at the township average of $310,000, taxes will go up $129 per year, or $11 a month.
In Tinton Falls, school taxes on a home valued at $306,155 will go down about $12.62 per year, or $1.05 per month, as the town’s share in the budget dropped from 57. 2 to 55.5 percent, and its tax rate dropped about a half-cent to 39.3 cents.
In Shrewsbury Township, where the residents’ share of the budget dropped from 1.35 to 1.2 percent, the owner of a home assessed at $204,629 will pay $86.41 less per year, or $7.20 per month. The 2013-14 tax rate is down more than four cents over last year at 41.3.
The shift between the towns is a mirror opposite of last year, when Shrewsbury and Tinton Falls residents were required to pay more and Eatontown residents saw a drop in their rates.
Parry said the district is still struggling with enrollment, which saw a sharp decline in the years leading up to the closure of Fort Monmouth in 2011. While the district saw an increase of about 16 students this year, she said Monmouth Regional has lost an average of more than 30 students per year going back to 2007.
“So where you had a drop in enrollment, you also had an impact on income,” she said.
To help spur enrollment and better prepare the district’s current students for their next educational step, Parry said Monmouth Regional currently spends significantly more per pupil than most schools throughout the state.
The district spent $19,377 per student during the 2011-12 school year, nearly $5,600 more than the state average. The district plans to spend $19,600 in 2013-14.
“We want the students to be successful, — and, yes, sometimes that does cost money,” she said.
The total budget is also significantly higher than the state-determined level of “adequacy,” a formula that determines how much funding is necessary to provide all students a “thorough and efficient” education.
For Monmouth Regional, the 2013-14 state adequacy level would be $15.3 million. The district’s actual “adequacy budget,” which includes the local tax levy and aid, is $19.8 million.
Parry said the increased funding would pay dividends for both the students and the district in the long term.
“Some people would say you are over adequate, you’re spending too much money,” she said. “It’s an investment, we want a positive return on investment, and it is worth it for each one of the students.”
State aid for the district increased by more than $46,000 this year to more than $3.3 million, which accounts for nearly 14 percent of all revenue.
Parry said the funding still leaves a hole, however, after the district lost $482,000 in aid last year following the closure of Fort Monmouth.
Monmouth Regional plans to spend $8.2 million on instruction in 2013-14, with the remaining $16.1 million going toward “non-instructional expenditures.” The biggest expenses in this year’s budget include $2.1 million for out-of-district tuition, up close to $200,000 over last year, and $5.1 million for benefits contributions, down $50,000 from 2012-13.
Parry said the district was able to achieve nearly $700,000 in cost savings this year in its $1.5 million transportation budget and its $2 million custodial-andmaintenance budget by rebidding and combining bus routes, establishing shared services and retiring of personnel.
Throughout this year, she added, the district will be continually evaluating revenues and expenses with an eye toward next year, when all of its negotiated contracts will be up for renewal and additional challenges could complicate the budget process.
“This is just my opinion, [but] state aid and the budget for [20]14-15 is going to be a year of concern. You have a governor who is going to run for office, you don’t know what the funding formula is going to do, you don’t know what the tax base [will be] as a result of the hurricane,” she said. “That is still affecting tax bases in many towns, especially in Monmouth County and statewide.”