Cost includes district starting full-day kindergarten for the 2022-23 year
LINWOOD — The Board of Education adopted its $15,735,645 spending plan April 27 with a tax rate increase of 2.7 cents per $100 of assessed value and implementation of full-day kindergarten districtwide.
“Linwood is taking a huge step with the implementation of full-kindergarten for the 2022-23 school year. That is a big part of this budget,” Superintendent Brian Pruitt said.
The spending plan includes a tax levy of $13,081,998, just less than 2 percent more than this year. Tax levy funds 84 percent of the budget, with state aid making up 6.7 percent, fund balance 5.2 percent and reserves 3.6 percent.
The tax increase amounts $27 on every $100,000 of assessed value. The owner of an average-assessed home of $296,222 would see a local school tax increase of about $80.
The municipal budget does not increase the tax rate, which will remain 94.6 cents per $100.
Mainland Regional High School was expected to adopt its budget May 2, calling for a 1.7-cent increase in the regional school tax rate to 72 cents.
However, Atlantic County’s $236.8 million budget calls for a 1.5-cent decrease, bringing the total expected tax increase for a homeowner in Linwood to 2.9 cents, or $87 on a $300,000 home.
Factoring into the Linwood school tax rate increase is the rising cost of salaries and benefits for employees, which account for 83 percent of the budget.
The district continues to lose state aid, with the amount falling $537,275 from $1.58 million in 2016-17 to $1.04 million in 2022-23.
That amount of aid, however, is based on the assumption of steady enrollment, Pruitt said, which has not been the case.
Total enrollment has fallen from a high of 846 students in 2014-15 to 767 for 2022-23, but that number is from fall 2021 and 800 is more accurate, he said.
A good sign for the district is the city’s ratable base increased for the first time since at least 2016, when the total taxable property amounted to $978,750,200. Due to successful tax appeals and other factors, that fell steadily to $930,606,100 in 2021 but increased by .05 percent to $931,071,000 for this budget year.
Pruitt was excited to announce a power purchase agreement that will help reduce energy costs and help with capital improvements.
“Linwood will be going green — we are getting solar installations at both Belhaven and Seaview this summer. We will be leveraging those savings in order to help the district moving forward,” he said. “We are very excited about that. It comes with replacement of a big section of roof at Seaview at no cost to taxpayers.”
That roofing work is expected to begin before the school year is over.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
