PETERSBURG — Each year following its reorganization meeting in early January, when new and returning members are sworn in and a president and vice president are chosen, the school board turns some of its focus to the following academic year.
Because the school calendar is composed of parts of two years, most goals for the district had been set prior to students walking through the doors in September.
Therefore, following the meeting, held Jan. 6, members instead complete a board self-evaluation and get to work on the budget.
The New Jersey School Boards Association compiles information from the self-assessment and meets with the members for follow-up, then the board gathers for a retreat in February to go over the results and set goals for the following school year.
Board of Education President Michelle Barbieri said goals for this academic year include student achievement and improved communication with stakeholders.
“We’ll continue until we start our new ones, which will be in September. We’re going to make them all student-focused,” she said.
A major undertaking following the reorganization meeting is formulating the budget for the next year, something generally introduced to the public in March.
Last year, the board adopted its budget April 28, calling for a 4-cent increase to the tax rate to $1.587 per $100 of assessed value. The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $290,248 realized a school tax increase of about $116 to $4,606 for the year under the $41,388,497 spending plan.
The tax levy, or the amount to be raised by taxation, rose 2 percent to $30,349,277 under the budget. The district was able to take a health care cap adjustment of .59 percent, or $175,497. Therefore, the total levy increased 2.59 percent to $30,524,674 for 2025-26.
Under the Student Funding Reform Act of 2018, the district had lost more than $6 million in state aid, down from a high in excess of $10 million to less than $4 million.
Part of the problem is that state law requires school budgets to be adopted and sent to the county and state by a deadline that is often very close to when state aid figures are released, giving district financial experts little time to adjust to what has been a guessing game on funding.
That may finally change this year. Barbieri said she is closely following legislation in the state Senate that would provide relief.
The Senate Education Committee recently advanced a bill sponsored by Sen. Vin Gopal that would boost funding transparency and budget stability for districts, as well as increase access to data used to determine state aid.
The bill, S-4885, would require the Department of Education to create a public Education Funding Portal that would include information used to determine aid for every district.
Under the bill, the education commissioner would provide districts with a preliminary aid figure by the end of the first week in December, providing more time to plan budgets.
Following the governor’s annual budget message, the commissioner would provide updated aid figures in time for budget introduction.
Barbieri said the current system “creates a little bit of distrust with the community” when the district has to adjust its budget after introduction based on late changes to aid figures “and it doesn’t appear that we’re being transparent.”
She said she hopes the bill gets some legs soon under Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill.
“They’ve had a lame-duck session, so after the new governor comes in, we’ll see what happens,” Barbieri said.
Last year, she said, the Department of Education set “guardrails,” saying it would not change aide amounts by more than 3 percent, and she hopes it does so again.
“There have been discussions about whether or not they’re going to make that permanent, but that’s helpful at least,” Barbieri said, noting the district must work with rising costs for programming, staffing, utilities, health care and insurance.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff