Millstone Township school board introduces $40M budget for 2021-22

MILLSTONE – The Millstone Township K-8 School District Board of Education has introduced a $40.1 million budget that will fund the operation of the district during the 2021-22 school year.

Following a discussion among district administrators and board members, the budget was introduced on March 8. A public hearing is scheduled for April 26. The budget, which may be revised until that time, may be adopted by the board following the public hearing.

The $40.1 million budget will be supported by a tax levy of $33.1 million to be paid by Millstone Township’s residential and commercial property owners. Other revenue includes $1.53 million from the district’s surplus fund (savings).

For the 2020-21 school year, the $39.6 million budget that was adopted by the board was supported by a local tax levy of $32.7 million and the receipt of $4 million in state aid.

For the 2021-22 school year, Millstone’s state aid will be reduced by $528,714 to $3.53 million.

The school district’s state aid has decreased each year since the enactment of state legislation known as S-2 in 2018. Millstone is projected to lose a total of $2.1 million in state aid under S-2 through 2024-25, according to district administrators.

After the budget was introduced, Superintendent of Schools Christopher Huss said, “While preparing the budget is always a very involved process, this year was once again especially challenging.

“For the fourth year in a row, we suffered a significant loss of state aid while expenses such as building operations, special education services, health care coverage and out-of-district tuition continue to rise.

“The S-2 funding formula appears to ignore these factors, among many others, while over-relying on enrollment data, local tax increases and other undisclosed multipliers,” Huss said.