K-8 Board Begins Preliminary Budget Review for '12-13 School Year

Gloucester Township Public Schools Assistant Superintendent John Bilodeau presented the Board of Education with a preliminary 2012-2013 budget for review and discussion during the Board's regular meeting Monday night at Glen Landing Middle School. 

“For the first time in a few years, the stage one school district budget is very favorable in terms of programs and impact on taxpayers,” Bilodeau said.

The $105 million budget, just in its very preliminary stage, increases the tax levy by $447,000. The average homeowner in Gloucester Township, with an assessed home value of $199,000, would see a tax increase of $20.92 per year, according to Bilodeau. 

For the 2011-12 school year, homeowners saw a tax increase of approximately $50 in support of the K-8 district's budget.

Bilodeau noted that Kingdom Charter School of Leadership will be adding a fourth-grade class for the 2012-13 school year, requiring the K-8 district to allocate an additional $300,000 to the Charter School on top of the $1.157 million for 2011-12.

“If we did not have to allocate these funds, the budget would actually represent a reduction in some areas,” said Bilodeau. 

At the , the BOE voted to move school elections to November.  The move means the public will no longer vote to approve the school budget in April and that the district must operate a budget which is at or below a 2 percent budgetary increase cap and to submit the budget to the Camden County Superintendent of Schools for approval.

Bilodeau’s proposed budget represents a 0.4 percent increase from 2011-12.

The preliminary budget was introduced on the heels of budget proposal last week. Under Christie’s proposal, aid to GTPS would increase by 2 percent, jumping from $48,919,027 for 2011-12 to $49,921,110 for 2012-2013. 

The public will have a chance to discuss the budget sometime in the next 31 days, at a public budget hearing that still has to be scheduled. At that time, the BOE will formally approve the final budget to be sent to the Camden County Superintendent of Schools for approval. 

The BOE also unanimously voted to approve the use of the New Jersey School Board Association to assist with the superintendent search. Current Superintendent Thomas Seddon will retire on August 31, 2012. The BOE will spend $6,500 for the services of NJSBA.

In addition, the district will have to incur additional advertisement placement costs.  The Board's first ads for a new superintendent are scheduled to run in the Star-Ledger and on NJ.com, as well as about 50 education-oriented sites, beginning Sunday.

The next regular meeting of the Board is scheduled for March 19 at Ann A. Mullen Middle School.