Haddon Township School District faces roughly $1.3 million shortfall; board considers 2%--6% tax-levy options

The Haddon Township School District is confronting a roughly $1,300,000 budget shortfall and is weighing tax-levy adjustments to close the gap, district staff told the board at its March meeting.

Staff member (S1) said the district's current baseline levy increase is 2% but presented options to raise the levy as high as 6%; the presentation said a 6% levy would reduce the deficit to about $94,000. "So this state has put us in this gap," S1 said during the budget presentation.

The superintendent (S3) and staff described several drivers of the shortfall, including reductions in state aid and rising costs. S1 said the district's insurance costs are budgeted to increase by about 25% and stated, "Cost of our insurance for the district is $8,000,000 on a $40,000,000 budget," which S1 described as roughly 20% of the budget.

Using figures presented to the board, staff translated levy changes into household impacts: a 3% increase was shown as approximately $17 per month per average assessed home, while a 6% increase was presented as about $31 per month. S1 also said that moving to a 6% levy would recover the $48,000 the district reported losing in state aid and substantially reduce the remaining shortfall.

Chair (S2) emphasized that the board was not approving the budget that night. S2 said, "We're not approving our budget. We're not; we're gonna do that next week," and the superintendent (S3) confirmed the next steps: the board will hold a special meeting next Thursday to seek county consent and must submit the budget to the county by March 27; a public hearing is scheduled for May 7 when, barring further changes, the budget would be adopted.

Why it matters: The choice of levy percentage affects the district's ability to maintain programs and staffing amid rising costs and reduced state aid, and it will change the tax burden for local households.

What's next: The board will reconvene at a special meeting before the county deadline and will hold a public hearing on May 7. Board members discussed options and asked for further clarification of insurance and staffing impacts before voting.

(Quotes and figures above are drawn from the March meeting presentation and exchanges; some transcript lines combined a dollar figure and a percentage in ways that were ambiguous in places, and the article reports the amounts as presented to the board.)