JACKSON – The Jackson School District Board of Education has adopted a $153.83 million budget for the 2018-19 school year.
Board members took the action on April 24.
“There was a tremendous amount of work that went into getting this budget to the point where we could present it to the public as a reasonable plan to provide for our students next year,” Board of Education President Scott Sargent said.
“We took the lists of needs from each department and had to make some very hard choices. I think the budget does what it needs to do, which is serve the students of Jackson by building our curriculum, supporting our staff, and advancing our safety measures even further,” Sargent said.
Jackson’s residential and commercial property owners are projected to pay $91.3 million in property taxes to support the school district during 2018-19. The district’s total budget for 2017-18 was $151.16 million and the total tax levy was $88.5 million.
Administrators said that for 2018-19, the district will use a state permitted waiver because it is facing healthcare costs that exceed the state’s 2 percent cap on the general fund tax levy.
The school tax rate for 2018-19 is projected to be $1.33 per $100 of assessed valuation, which is an increase from $1.31 per $100 in 2017-18. The owner of a home assessed at $250,000 will pay $3,325 in school taxes in 2018-19, the owner of a home assessed at $400,000 will pay $5,320, and the owner of a home assessed at $500,000 will pay $6,650.
During 2017-18, the school taxes on those $250,000, $400,000 and $500,000 assessments were $3,275, $5,240 and $6,550, respectively.
School taxes are one item on a property owner’s tax bill. Property owners also pay Jackson municipal taxes, Ocean County taxes and a fire district tax. An individual’s taxes are determined in part by the assessed value of his home and property.
Helping to offset costs for taxpayers in 2018-19 is a $486,500 increase in state aid, which at a less than 1 percent increase is still the biggest state aid increase Jackson has seen in six years, according to district administrators. Administrators are also returning $378,504 in unused funds from an old bond question to reduce the district’s debt service tax levy.
“Does the budget have everything we wanted? No. But it is a budget that represents the needs of our students and protects the taxpayers, which is never an easy thing to accomplish,” Sargent said.
In accordance with a five-year curriculum plan, the budget includes investments in the district’s math curriculum in grades six through 12, as well as district-wide programs in media, technology and business. The budget also supports programs related to responsive classroom training, which provides practical strategies to emphasize social, emotional and academic growth in a strong, safe school community, according to district administrators.
The budget provides maintenance and investments in the district’s technology infrastructure, but does not include additional Promethean boards (interactive whiteboards) requested by the technology department.
The spending plan includes the last phase of the district’s plan to install a security vestibule at each school and to accomplish limited facilities improvements such as re-siding modular classrooms, window projects, parking lot repairs and electrical work.
