$77M school district budget approved

The Board of Education approved a budget of about $77 million for the 2024-25 school year at its meeting April 30.

The local tax levy, which funds about 84 percent of the budget, will be about $64.7 million, a 3.27 percent increase from a year earlier.

The owner of an average home in West Milford, assessed at $243,300, will pay $187.71 more in school taxes than a year earlier.

The budget was about $76.3 million for the 2023-24 school year.

Even though state aid was reduced, the 2024-25 budget maintains current staffing levels, interim Superintendent Lydia Furnari said, noting that the state aid cut was much smaller than expected. State aid provides about 8.4 percent of the district’s revenue.

“It was always our intention to impact the classroom last when it came to any budget deficit,” Furnari said.

Positions that were partially funded with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) grants have been absorbed into the district’s budget. The ESSER money, which will end in September, was meant to help schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

”We feel that Encore is extremely important to the support of our students in reading and math ... so we wanted to make sure those positions were not lost,” she said.

Some Chromebooks purchases, formerly funded with ESSER money, also have been absorbed in the budget.

Furnari said funds were reallocated to add one physical education/health teacher for the middle and high schools, one Spanish teacher for the middle and high school, three special-education staff members in elementary schools, and an assistant principal at Highlander Academy.

The new physical education/health teacher will help reduce those class sizes from 35 or 36 students and also will allow most of the science labs to be moved out of the lunch periods.

The budget provides for the reinstatement of Project Adventure in the elementary schools and staff for the Second Step social-emotional learning program at elementary schools.

”So by that one position, we have been able to really restore and enhance a number of different things,” Furnari said.

When the Italian program was phased out, many students moved to Spanish classes, which grew to more than 30 students each. The new Spanish teacher will help reduce those class sizes, she noted.

The vacant chemistry teacher position is included in the budget so the job will be advertised, she said.

Capital projects will include new windows and doors at Upper Greenwood Lake Elementary School and repairs of the high school tennis courts.

Spending on facilities is expected to drop 45 percent because of fewer projects planned, said William Scholts, the district’s business administrator.

For the 2024-25 year, the district expects to spend $623,352 less in tuition because fewer students plan to attend schools out of the district as well as a tuition adjustment from Passaic County Technical Institute for the previous year, he said.

Employee benefits will increase 5.9 percent in 2024-25, compared with a year earlier. Benefits are the second-largest expense in the budget at 23 percent. Fifty-seven percent of the budget goes to salaries.