According to the district, a loss of funding in that amount would have a direct impact on programs and class sizes in the district.
The Evesham Township School District could be facing cumulative cuts in state aid totaling about $8 million by 2025 under a new bill to modify the state’s school funding formula.
The bill was awaiting the potential signature of Gov. Murphy as of press time.
According to ETSD Superintendent John Scavelli Jr., the legislation would effectively implement provisions of the School Funding Reform Act of 2008.
Although that act has been in place for nearly a decade, Scavelli said the state has not followed the SFRA, instead choosing to effectively hold districts harmless in a given year if they were set to lose money under the formula.
However, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA), part of recent budget negotiations between Murphy and fellow Democrats included indications that Murphy would sign legislation sponsored by state Senate President Steve Sweeney that would in part tackle the issue of “overfunded” districts.
According to Scavelli’s reading of the NJSBA information, the district could lose about $796,000 immediately for the 2018–2019 school year, while continuing to lose additional amounts in following years for a total loss in state aid of about $8 million by 2025.
As of this prior school year’s 2017–2018 budget, the ETSD received about $13.6 million in state aid. The 2018–2019 school year budget the board passed in May estimated about $14 million in state aid.
Scavelli said a loss of funding in the amounts outlined in the proposed legislation would have an impact on programs and class sizes in the district.
“To say what we would do and when we would do it … that would need to be determined. Right now we’re just waiting to see if the governor would sign the bill,” Scavelli said.
While some districts will lose funding under the legislation and other districts will gain funding, Scavelli said the formula is mainly determined by student enrollment, municipal property wealth (ratables) and the personal wealth of residents within a municipality.
Since the Evesham Township School District has seen a decline in enrollment since its peak of 2003, and since ratables and residents’ wealth have increased during that time, Scavelli said the district technically should have been losing money under the formula since it was first passed.
“We really get hit on all three factors,” Scavelli said. “The reason that it’s such a big number now is this has been a 10-year compounded issue.”
This issue was also discussed at the most recent meeting of the Lenape Regional High School District Board of Education.
Taxpayers within several of the sending municipalities of the LRHSD could also be affected by the new legislation, as LRHSD officials released information announcing the district was set to lose a total of $7.1 million through the next seven years under the legislation.
According to LRHSD officials, the potential reeducations in state aid would cause “a major breaking point” for the LRHSD operating budget, and could likely cause larger class sizes, as well as cuts to teaching and support staff, the elimination of some academic programs, reductions in security personnel, reliance on aging technology, delays to routine facility maintenance, outsourcing of support staff, and the elimination of select athletics and after-school activities.
