Members of the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education adopted a $105.7 million tentative budget with a 7-cent tax increase for all three valley municipalities.
The tentative budget was adopted on March 17 and has been submitted to the county superintendent for review and approval.
A public hearing on the 2025-26 budget has been scheduled for April 28.
Board President Anita Williams Galiano, Vice President Jacquie Genovesi and board members, Alex Reznik, Pamela Lilleston, Mike Wilson, Dhruv Kapadia, Mark Peters and Amanda Stylianou voted “yes” to approve and submit the budget.
Board member John Slotman, who represents Hopewell Township, was the sole “no” vote on the measure.
“I’m just not to the comfort point I need to be at this juncture,” Slotman said. “Obviously, [I] reserve the right to change my mind. But at this moment in time, I just have to vote ‘no.'”
Reznik, who represents Pennington, added that he gasped a little bit when he saw the budget and the percentage increase.
“My vote of ‘yes’ is very considered…. some very difficult tradeoffs that we had to make,” he said. “Ultimately to me maintaining as much of what we have in the district today seemed to be the right choice to make.
“Obviously, we could have gone for the lower tax rate increase but the cuts would have had to be quite a bit deeper. I want to recognize that in this current situation this is a painful increase to the taxpayers of the district, but I do think it’s important both for the schools and what we have in the district and ultimately the property values of everyone.”
Pennington’s projected tax rate increase is $1.93 per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of an average home assessed at $489,000 would pay $9,437 in school taxes.
Hopewell Borough’s projected tax rate increase is $1.92 per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of an average home assessed at $408,000 would pay $7,833 in school taxes.
Hopewell Township’s projected tax rate increase is $1.87 per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of an average home assessed at $478,000 would pay $8,938 in school taxes.
The 2025-26 projected tax levy is $92.6 million and would be the amount property owners from the three municipalities in Hopewell Valley would pay in school property taxes to support the district.
A $1.8 million health benefits waiver and $218,000 enrollment waiver are included in the tax levy.
School taxes are one item on a property owner’s total tax bill, which also includes municipal taxes and county taxes.
The amount an individual pays in property taxes is determined by the assessed value of individual’s home and/or property, and the tax rate that is set by each taxing entity.
To balance the budget this upcoming year, cuts and adjustments to spending and anticipated revenues include:
- Elimination or consolidation of non-instructional positions (not paraprofessionals but would be people running offices and people not in direct contact with students).
- Increased class sizes (class sizes will increase across all six schools, district will look at redistricting this summer).
- Charging the full cost of courtesy busing (going to be recalculated but is in the area of $1,000 per seat).
- Reductions to supply accounts.
- Elimination of auto shop (school district has not been able to find a teacher).
- Reduction of district funded field trips (elimination of district funds for field trips that do not fit within the budget).
- Reinstatement of extracurricular and activity fees (would provide around $200,000 in additional revenue to support those programs/fees for activities).
- Restructuring of K-12 exploratory offerings (elective type classes/reducing based on enrollment). At the elementary level the school district will consolidate the exploratory offerings.
Robert Colavita, assistant superintendent of Business, noted that hazardous busing remains the same and that anyone who does not have a safe route to school is transported for free.
“[There are] transportation fees for our non-remote students less than two miles from the school,” he said. “It’s called courtesy busing, and we have been charging for the past many years, but we will need to increase those fees this year to the actual cost due to additional routes we have had to take on for regular students.
“It is a cost we can’t subsidize anymore.”
Proposed appropriations for the budget include: $41.6 million towards regular instruction (including co-curricular athletics); $21.9 million for staff benefits; $20.8 million for special education; $7.7 million for operations and maintenance; $6.5 million for transportation; $4.1 million for debt service; $2.8 million for central office and district services; and $273,468 for capital outlay (equipment, facilities, and construction services).
“We are right now in a period of inflation,” Colavita noted. “Everything seems to be going up from our delivery of health benefits to all the supplies we buy to the energy we are consuming.”
Outside of the tax levy, proposed revenues include: $7.8 million from state aid (an about $400,000 increase from 2024-25); $2.8 million from the fund balance (savings); $1.7 million from miscellaneous (interest on savings, tuition revenues, facility rentals); and $914,190 from federal aid.
“The district was pleased to receive the additional funds from the state after being warned to expect up to 15 percent less earlier this year,” Colavita said. “We have a balanced budget … The district will utilize cap waivers for increased enrollment and increases to health benefits to assist in achieving a balanced budget.”
