$1.3M added to school budget

The Vernon Township Board of Education approved the addition of $1.3 million to the district’s 2023-24 budget at its meeting April 20.

The board also approved an application to the state for about $211,000 in stabilization aid, which would amount to about 60 percent of the state aid cut from the district.

Business Administrator Patricia Radcliffe-Lee said the changes would fund 10 to 11 teaching positions that otherwise would have been cut.

School board president Kelly Mitchell said those position would be mostly in the lower grades.

Both measures were approved in 7-0 votes. Board members Justin Annunziata and Ray Zimmerman were absent.

When the district sent its budget for county review, recommendations included increasing the amount of money budgeted for extraordinary aid by $200,000 and reducing the fund balance that the district would carry to the 2024-25 budget by about $700,000 to 1 percent from the recommended 2 percent.

Radcliffe-Lee said the money is expected to flow into district coffers within the month.

The district will not put any money into the maintenance reserve.

The district will be spending $37.5 million on salaries and $11.1 million on benefits, which is 73 percent of the budget.

Mitchell said it wouldn’t be enough to avoid staff cuts. “We’re working with 43 extra right now,” she said. “If we just put back 11, of course, it’s not enough.”

The school introduced a proposed spending plan totaling about $66.6 million at its March 16 meeting.

That was a 6.88 percent decrease from a year earlier because of an expected drop of $3.4 million drop in revenue. The preliminary budget would have increased the tax levy 1.79 percent.

At that meeting, Superintendent Russell Rogers said the district planned to cut the work force by 40 full- and part-time employees.

On April 20, Radcliffe-Lee said two of the district’s bus providers, Decker Transportation and Krapf, renewed their contracts at the relatively low increase tied to the state’s Consumer Price Index. Both companies have been cooperative with route adjustments and picking up routes that other companies declined, she said.

“It wasn’t all the bus companies. Our local companies held the line for us.”

That is not enough to save the late buses at the high school. Mitchell said the district will not offer the 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. buses next year.

Earlier this year, the district eliminated the 5:30 p.m. bus to save money.

Rogers said the district needs to be careful with its funds. While the stabilization aid application is expected to be approved, it would be a one-time influx.

“If the funding formula is changed, then it will have some results for us,” he said. “But one-time stabilization is sometimes only a one-time promise, and next year we have to evaluate where we’re at budget-wise as well.”