Voters in the Medford Township School District will be asked next Tuesday on Election Day to approve significantly increasing taxes to pay for new positions and enhance the district's security system, Superintendent Keira Scussa told 70and73.com.
The first part of the ballot question asks voters whether the district can increase taxes to raise $3.625 million to hire several Class III officers, make the existing student resource officer (SRO) a permanent position, and hire several mental health clinicians, a behavioral support team and a supervisory staff member.
If approved, this part of the question would result in a permanent increase in the district’s tax levy, Scussa said.
Class III officers are police officers or state troopers who have retired in the past three years, are younger than 65, hired and trained by a local police department and will work in tandem with the SRO, according to Scussa.
Unlike the district's existing counselors, behaviorists develop functional behavioral assessments and behavioral plans and provide them to those people closest to the students who make outbursts or avoid others, according to Nicole Espenberg, the district's director of educational support services.
"They come into a classroom and spend a significant amount of time observing students throughout their day to identify what is causing a behavior," Espenberg said of behaviorists.
The second part of the question asks voters if the district can increase taxes to raise $3.2 million for the one-time purchase of a 10-year license for a new security platform and communication system. If approved, it would not result in a permanent increase in the tax levy, Scussa said.Â
"It is a platform that would allow us access to 360-degree cameras throughout the indoors and outdoors of all of our facilities," Scussa said. “We will be able to use this technology to put in a person of interest and load them into the platform so if they were to be seen anywhere on our district property, we would immediately get an alert to all of our cell phones and we could lock down or shelter in place immediately."
Evon DiGangi, the school district's business administrator, told 70and73.com that if the questions are approved, property taxes for the 2024-25 school year would increase by $716 for a home assessed at the municipal average of about $330,889 and increase by $380 in the 2025-26 school year. These amounts are in addition to the tax increases Medford residents are already expected to pay as a result of the 2024-25 school budget process, according to DiGangi. Â
"For maybe a year and a half now, we have been hearing from community members at our board meetings that they would like to see class III officers serve in our schools as extra security," Scussi said. "Given what we have seen for years now. …We have parents who would feel much safer if we had these Class III officers in every school."
District data indicates that each school enrollment is well above its intended capacity, according to Scussa. Data also indicates there was a 98% increase last year regarding the number of students who have been shown as disruptive, disrespectful or inappropriate behavior.
The changes initiated by the questions, if voters approve, would begin in spring 2025, Scussi said.
