There are still leaves on the trees, and already the administration of the Evesham Township School District has started meetings with staff regarding the 2015–2016 school year budget, Superintendent John Scavelli recently announced.
“Put simply, it’s just an ongoing process all the time,” Scavelli said. “It really never ends.”
Scavelli and his staff recently completed the annual process of visiting each school in the district to explain the budgetary process as well give staff at the schools a basic overview of the issues the district faces.
Some of the major issues discussed included class sizes, declining enrollment, maintaining and enhancing instructional programs and ensuring initiatives undertaken by the school are sustainable.
“We don’t want to start something one year and then realize next year there is just no way we can keep it going, whether it’s a funding issue or some other issue,” Scavelli said.
Scavelli said class sizes had gone up significantly at the middle school level several years ago as a result of the restructuring that took place there, but the district knew those levels would eventually go down because of the smaller number of students in lower grades.
“They have started to come down a little bit over these past few years,” Scavelli said. “It’s not happening quickly, but over time those numbers have started to come down.”
Efforts are also continuing to keep class numbers as low as possible at the elementary school level, particularly in the lowest grades.
However, Scavelli also mentioned how the district has been able to save money in recent years by adding self-contained special education programs that were more cost effective than sending students out of the district to other private facilities.
He estimates that just the effect on last year’s budget alone over time was about $1.6 million.
“Our budget would have been about $1.6 million higher than what it actually was,” Scavelli said. “So actually by adding programs, adding staff, we saved money.”
Scavelli went on to discuss what he called the other “big thing” — declining enrollment.
According to the district demographic study projections going into the 2018–19 school year, the furthest year out projected so far, enrollment would reach 4,222 students, down 1,120 students from the district’s peak enrollment more than a decade ago.
Scavelli noted that as a part of studies, demographers contact the township planning and zoning boards to factor in any future additions to the town that might also affect student population.
“They consider anything that’s on the books, anything that’s been approved, any housing, any apartments, any of those things which would affect our student population, they’re already factored in there,” Scavelli said.
Scavelli said he also spoke with district staff about revenues and expenditures.
He said the largest area of expenditures for the school district, 84 percent of the general fund budget, is salaries and benefits for staff. Operations, transportation and special education make up 11 percent, with 5 percent spent on everything else.
Last year’s budget reached $75.92 million in total appropriations, with a general fund tax levy of 1.25 percent.
Scavelli said talking with district staff in the early stages of budgeting was valuable because the staff are all part of the process and oftentimes have suggestions to offer.
“It’s good I think for their perspective, and I think it’s good for our perspective as we move forward,” Scavelli said. “We’re in full swing. We’re moving forward with developing our budget and implementing the plans that we have in place.”
