The upcoming Cherry Hill School District budget, facing a reduction in state aid, will require a 2% tax increase, district officials said Tuesday as they presented the 2025-26 preliminary budget.
Annual taxes would increase by $179.59 for a home with a districtwide average assessment of $227,000, the district reported.
Cuts also will be required, including unspecified reductions in high school sections, elimination of 19 support positions and permanent substitutes and a decline in the educational services provided by outside contractors, Lynn Shugars, assistant superintendent, said during her board presentation.
In addition, if funds the district previously banked are not used, there may also be increases in elementary class sizes and additional cuts in high school programming, operational staff and transportation, according to Shugars.
Shugars noted that 70% to 75% of the budget is personnel costs and that non-personnel areas can sustain only so much cutting. The proposed budget shows a 1.1% decrease in salaries, but benefits are expected to rise by 6.4%.
The $256,122,121 proposed general fund budget represents a $309,110, or 0.1%, reduction from the current budget.Â
State aid in the coming school year will drop to $28,592,928, a cut of $884,317, or 3%, from this year's 2024-25 budget. State aid in 2023-24 totaled $36,377,427.Â
The preliminary budget adds an elementary-level math coach and five interventionists, according to Shugars. Several school board members acknowledged that additions to the budget need to be kept to a minimum but also said those additions are needed.
"On this day five years ago, COVID was deemed a pandemic," board member Kim Gallagher said. "Our youngest learners in our district will be with us for another eight years. We really do need to consider the gaps that some of the students have lost."
Added Board Vice President Adam Greenbaum: "We still have students catching up on some basic skills. We see that when we look at our test scores at certain grade levels year after year…. We want to make sure this is still an achievement-focused budget."
The preliminary budget also calls for changing the district's middle school model to a junior high school one.
Superintendent Kwame Morton said the proposed model offers "greater cost efficiency" and "greater teacher utilization" to the district but removes the smaller learning communities and advisory periods offered in the current model. Morton did not provide a specific amount to be saved by switching to the junior high school model.
Shugars noted the Cherry Hill school district received $884,317 less from the state this year and that the district is also not receiving state equalization aid or state stabilization aid for the coming school year.
The preliminary budget is the focus of a special school board meeting and school board vote on March 18, according to board President Gina Winters, adding the public hearing and final vote on the budget is April 30.
"We do not always change the budget between the initial submission and the public hearing on the budget," Shugars said. "(But) we have changed the budget in that time frame as well. We have an opportunity to continue to refine things."
