Budget Talks Begin In Moorestown School District

I hope everyone’s new year is off to a great start. January has been a productive month for the Moorestown School Board and District, including the swearing-in of new board members, holding Board leadership elections, and a presentation on preliminary budget numbers for the 2017-18 budget, among other actions.

The board held its yearly reorganization meeting on Jan. 3, 2017. At this meeting, Kathy Goldenberg, Maurice Weeks, and Sandra Alberti were sworn-in for three year terms (2017-2020). Dimitri Schneiberg was also sworn-in for a two-year term (2017-2019).

Both Kathy Goldenberg and myself were re-elected by the board as President and Vice President, respectively. President Goldenberg has since announced committee leadership and membership, which will be available here in the near future.

Also at the reorganization meeting, the board readopted district curriculum and approved various professional contracts. The full agenda with appointments can be found here.

To highlight a few items, Garrison Architects was appointed Architect of Record, Holman and Frenia PC was appointed Auditor, and Comegno Law Group PC was appointed to provide legal services.

At the regular monthly meeting on Jan. 17, Business Administrator/Board Secretary Joanne D’Angelo provided a preliminary look at the 2017-18 budget. Project revenues were a large focus of the presentation, including projected revenue generation of over $500,000.

One exciting component of the revenue generation efforts is an emphasis on attracting out of district students on a tuition basis. This entails an application and interview process for prospective students who will pay a yearly fee to attend. Additional information on tuition opportunities can be found here.

While a deficit is currently projected, two major components of the budget are still unknown. However, we plan to learn health insurance premium rates and state aid in February.

Moving forward, the board will submit an initial budget to the Executive County Superintendent in March for review, and will hold the public hearing in late April on the final budget.

As a reminder, the district occasionally posts items for sale that the district no longer has a use for on the MTPS website. Current items include, an LCD projector, a desktop computer, Apple iMac Desktop, and network materials. An updated list can be found here.

The next regular board of education meeting will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, 7 p.m. in the William Allen Middle School media center.

As always, do not hesitate to reach out to the board or myself if you have any questions or need anything. I would be delighted to hear from you, and I hope to see you at a future meeting.

The views and content in this column do not necessarily represent those of the Moorestown Board of Education as a whole or any other individual member.

About this column: In this column, Moorestown Board of Education Member Brandon Pugh provides monthly updates on what's going on in the school district and on the BOE.