The Cranbury Township Board of Education has adopted a tentative budget of $22.9 million that would fund school district operations for the 2024-25 school year.
School board members adopted the tentative budget on March 13 with a public hearing scheduled for April 24 at 7 p.m. in the Large Group Room.
“Overall, our budget is healthy and [we] are expected to maintain all programming, services, and staff,” said Jennifer Diszler, principal and chief school administrator at The Cranbury School. “There are no cuts planned.
“The board takes pride in their fiscal responsibility and is grateful to be able to maintain such quality education for the students of Cranbury.”
To support the school district budget, residential and commercial property owners in the township are projected to pay a tax levy of $19.6 million in 2024-25.
The levy is an increase from the previous school year budget levy of $18.8 million, which means property owners would pay $800,000 in additional school property taxes to support the district.
In Cranbury, the school tax rate is expected to be 99.7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of an average home assessed at $606,744 will pay about $6,049 in school taxes for 2024-25.
The amount an individual pays in property taxes is determined by the assessed value of his home and/or property, and the tax rate that is set by each taxing entity.
School taxes are one item on a property owner’s total tax bill, which also includes municipal taxes and Middlesex County taxes.
The Cranbury School District budget covers items such as the Princeton High School (PHS) tuition, K-8 regular education programs, employee benefits, operations, maintenance, security, special education and transportation.
The school district proposes to spend 50.7% of the budget on salary, wages and benefits; 23.4% towards Princeton High School (PHS) tuition and services; 8.3% towards transportation; and 5.4% on operations, maintenance and security.
Outside of the tax levy, budget revenues include an expected $1.1 million in state aid, $450,000 from withdrawal from tuition reserve, $345,089 from the fund (savings) balance, $165,000 from withdrawal from the maintenance reserve, and an expected $150,000 from extraordinary aid.
For appropriations, it is projected that $4.6 million would go towards PHS tuition, $4.1 million toward K-8 regular instruction programs, $3 million to employee benefits, $1.8 million will go toward transportation, and $1.4 million to facilities – operations, maintenance and security.