The Cherry Hill Board of Education gave updates on the 2024-’25 budget and district salaries and offered remarks about outgoing board members Corrien Elmore Stratton and Jenn Fleisher at its recent meeting.
During committee reports, board and Business Secretary Lynn Shugars shared reflections from this year’s budget.
“Our total tax levy in 2023-’24 increased by just over $15 million, but the bulk of that was attributable to the debt service fund,” she explained. “As we are developing our general fund budget, the debt service piece of it was already approved through the referendum process, so it’s not part of the approval process. However, we do factor it in when we’re looking at tax impact.
“In the 2023-24 school year,” Shugars added, “you can see that the tax impact of the general fund on the average assessed township home – which is about $225,000 – was $104, and the tax impact of the debt service was $328.68.”
Shugars noted that the tax levy cap would be 2%, or $3.7 million, with the option to use banked cap to help fund other projects. Banked cap, she reminded meeting participants, was “not a pot of money but a taxing authority” that allows the board to use cap from previous years when they did not use the full 2%. The banked cap from 2021-’22 would expire at the end of the 2024-’25 cycle.
Elmore Stratton discussed human resources and emphasized the need for further conversations about school district starting salaries. Many surrounding districts – including Pennsauken, Moorestown, Haddonfield, Haddon Heights, Voorhees and Evesham Township – have higher starting salaries than Cherry Hill.
“Our committee really strongly suggests to the board to go to the 2% (tax levy) so that we can make sure we get some new things in place,” Elmore Stratton noted. ” … Our committee’s biggest suggestion here is prior to anything being added, made or chopped or whatever, that you all have a conversation with (acting superintendent) Dr. Kwame (Morton), a board representative and someone who represents unions in terms of where we need to go with those salary guides.”
Fleisher – who will resign effective Dec. 31 because her husband has been elected township mayor – and Board Solicitor Paul Green also addressed misinformation and concerns raised during public comment on district policy 2270 regarding religion in schools, approved on second reading at the meeting. Fleisher explained that the policy is longstanding and is a federally protected measure that allows students their constitutional right to prayer in school.
Green emphasized that this was not a policy that the district came up with on its own, but one coming from Strauss Esme, a company that the works with the district and routinely recommends policies for them and many other school districts.
“We, as a government entity, cannot establish religion in the states, so we cannot force religious instruction,” said Green. “We do not bring prayer into the schools except, for the other prong, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, we are obligated to accommodate the religious needs of peoples. And that’s what this policy has provided for and that’s all really all it still provides for.”
The next board of education will hold its reorganization meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
