School District Budget Includes 3-Cent Tax Increase

In a largely empty auditorium at the Intermediate School Monday morning, district officials made their first presentation of the 2013-14 budget, which comes with a 3-cent tax increase.

The 9:30 a.m. meeting attracted mainly Board of Education members with just a few members of the public as district program heads ran down a laundry list of their fiscal accomplishments while staying within the state-mandated 2 percent cap on the tax levy.

The hard numbers, presented by Business Administrator Brian Smyth, were held to the end of the nearly 90-minute presentation.

The $68,462,470 total budget for the upcoming school year will be presented again at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Intermediate School.

The budget comes with a 3-cent tax increase and is supported by a $58, 636, 755 tax levy -- up $340,064 or .58 percent from last year.

The tax rate of about $1.64 cents, up from about $1.61 cents last year, is 2.9-cents higher under the proposed budget -- an increase of 1.8 percent.

On a home assessed at $305,000, the township average, the school tax bill would be about $5,005 under the new spending plan, up from about $4,917 under last year’s budget, an increase of about $88.

The budget includes the addition of a pre-engineering academy at the high school, additional technology purchases, significant security improvements and changes to the special education program, among other changes, officials said.