Dear Eatontown Public Schools Community Member:
As Superintendent of Schools, I am writing to you today to inform you of a significant Board of Education action that may impact the school community in the near future. As you know, for the last seven years, the district’s annual state aid allocation has been significantly reduced by approximately $2,232,711, or stated another way, over the last seven years the district’s annual state aid has been reduced from $3.9 million in 2016-2017 to $1.8 million in 2024-2025. These significant reductions have reached a crisis point for the district. The school community has been lobbying along with other districts similarly affected by these massive state aid cuts called S-2 for some relief to maintain reasonable class sizes, appropriate student supports, and quality educational programs.
On May 14, 2024, Governor Murphy signed P.L. 2024, c. 13 which provided Stabilized School Budget Aid Grants to certain eligible districts as well as allowed districts to increase the tax levy by up to 9.9% in order to offset the massive state aid reductions districts have experienced under S-2. Please click on this link to learn more about this new law. Eatontown Public Schools was not eligible for the Stabilized School Budget Aid Grant, but was eligible for the provision to raise the tax levy under the new law. Consequently, the Board of Education will likely propose to authorize a resolution that will allow the tax levy to be raised by $987,466 for the next budget year, 2024-2025, at its June 24, 2024 Board of Education meeting. You are welcome to attend this public meeting to gain additional information about the process.
The Board of Education and Administration do not take this responsibility lightly. The district understands the economic context this decision is being considered. However, for the last seven years, the school system’s annual state aid allocation has been reduced significantly which has resulted in both staff and program cuts along the way. The cumulative state aid cuts since 2016-2017 have amounted to $10,179,367. It is important to note that by raising the tax levy, the district will still be operating on a budget that reflects less than half of its former annual state aid funding. Please click on this link to review our budget presentation from April 2024 which contains additional information.
The resources provided by P.L. 2024, c. 13 will enable the district to retain important personnel in the future including two full-time school counselors providing one school counselor at every school, retaining four classroom teachers at the grades 2-6 levels to maintain reasonable class sizes for those grades, maintaining a full-time ELL teacher to support students’ language acquisition, and the restoration of an administrative position supervising student educational programs districtwide. All of these staff positions support student learning and pupil social and emotional development. Without this Board of Education action, these positions would either remain cut or would be cut once the one-time funding allocations were spent next school year. This additional tax levy funding remains in the budget each year.
Last but not least, what will this increase in the tax levy cost the average taxpayer in Eatontown? Based upon the average tax assessment of $504,000, the increase in property taxes would be $9.47 per month or $133.58 per year. Due to the guidelines established in the new law, the district needs to act by the end of June 2024. Since the 2017-2018 school year, the first year of our state aid reductions, the district has raised the tax levy on average by 2.81% per year.
Thank you for your review and consideration. We appreciate your support in helping the district provide a quality and equitable education for all learners. If you have any questions, please contact my office at (732) 935-3323 or jquaranta@eatontown.org.
Sincerely,
Scott T. McCue
Superintendent of Schools