Brick School Board Sets Tentative $162M Budget For 2022-23

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Board of Education approved a resolution Tuesday night to submit its tentative $162 million budget for the 2022-23 school year to the Ocean County Executive Superintendent.

The tentative overall budget of $162,098,698 includes a tax levy of $118,333,977, according to the resolution.

School districts are mandated by state law to submit their tentative budgets to the executive county superintendents by March 28 this year.

"As I stated at last month’s Board meeting, our budget is very simple in that we don’t have much control over revenue sources," Superintendent Thomas Farrell said. "Our revenue can only go up $2.3 million with the mandated 2 percent tax levy cap."

The overall budget of $162,098,698 includes total general fund expenditures of $142,790,154 for 2022-23. That is a decrease of $4,528,154 from the total expenditures of $147,318,308 in the 2021-22 budget — decrease of 3 percent.

That reflects the $4.7 million cut in state funding announced by the state Department of Education last week.

The district is expecting $18.7 million in special revenues, an increase of $7.2 million over 2021-22. Its debt service is dropping by $1.3 million for 2022-23, from $1,952,947 in 2021-22 to $601,274 for '22-23, according to the resolution.

The $4.7 million state aid cut is the fifth out of seven years of cuts under S2, the state law that has mandated state aid cuts for districts deemed to be not paying their fair share of property taxes.

Brick Township has cumulatively lost more than $20 million under S2.

The 2 percent increase in the tax levy is a requirement for districts that are deemed "under adequacy" under S2, meaning they are not spending as much money per student as the state says is necessary for a thorough and efficient education.

The full budget presentation and public hearing on the budget is set for 7 p.m. on April 28. The state deadline for final adoption of the budget is May 14.

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