By Michael Benavides
Staff Writer
PLUMSTED – The Plumsted Township School District Board of Education has set May 3 as the date for a public hearing on the district’s $28.68 million budget for the 2017-18 school year.
The public hearing will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the media center at New Egypt High School.
Residential and commercial property owners in Plumsted will pay $12.68 million in property taxes to support the $28.68 million budget, which was introduced on March 15.
Board Vice President Leslie Septor and board members Susan Potter, Joseph Surdo, Chris Probasco, Monica Sempervive and Larry Witham voted to introduce the budget. Board President Sandra Soles was absent from the meeting.
The district operates four schools: the New Egypt Primary School, the Dr. Gerald H. Woehr Elementary School, New Egypt Middle School and New Egypt High School.
In 2017-18, the school tax rate will be $1.618 per $100 of assessed valuation. The average home is assessed at $279,300 and the owner of that home will pay $4,519 in school taxes, according to budget documents.
In 2016-17, the school tax rate was $1.585 per $100 of assessed valuation. The average home was assessed at $279,293 and the owner of that home paid $4,425 in school taxes.
Plumsted residents will pay more or less in school taxes than the owner of a home that is assessed at the township average depending on the assessment of the home and/or property they own.
School taxes are one component of a property owner’s total tax bill. In addition to school taxes, property owners also pay Plumsted municipal taxes, Ocean County taxes and other assessments.
Plumsted’s state aid for 2017-18 will be the same as it was for 2016-17 – $11.32 million. School Choice Aid has increased from $235,752 in 2016-17 to $246,468 for 2017-18.
The 2017-18 budget will fund four new academies at New Egypt High School: the Warrior Teachers for Tomorrow (which became operational during the 2016-17 school year), the Warrior Business Academy, the Warrior Engineering Academy and the Warrior Law and Social Justice Academy. The latter three academies will open in September.
Capital projects consist of the construction of a pole barn at the high school. The structure will be a storage facility. A second capital project will see the reconfiguration of the Pathways Lab at the high school into space for the engineering academy.
The budget also includes funds for a proposed realignment that will move kindergarten and first grade classes from the primary school to the elementary school.
Superintendent of Schools Gerald North said the two grades are being moved as a result of the district’s declining enrollment.
“I am proposing the move to the board because of declining enrollment in order to maximize building usage, to improve the vertical articulation in grades K-5, to improve opportunities to accelerate and remediate students in grades K-5, to improve professional development in grades K-5 and to provide the opportunity to expand other programs that potentially could bring alternate forms of revenue,” North said.
