Little Ferry School Board Adopts $29.8 Million Budget for 2024-2025

The Little Ferry School Board has adopted a $29.8 million budget for the 2024-2025 school year, with a commitment to optimizing spending to enhance student performance, expand programs, and maintain facilities. Key discussions in the meeting focused on the budget’s impact on taxes, efforts to bring back in-district special education programs, and strategies to address tuition costs for schools outside the district.

The budget reflects a 2% tax levy increase, amounting to $22,469,72, and incorporates a 7.5% increase in state aid. The operating budget is set at $28,508,854, which includes salaries and benefits, special education tuition, facilities maintenance, transportation, and security. Salaries account for approximately 40% of the budget, while benefits make up another 10%. Special education tuition and tuition for high school students represent a portion of expenses. The Board expressed efforts to increase in-district special education programs to provide better financial efficiencies and potentially generate revenue by accepting students from other districts once space becomes available.

A focus of the meeting was the high cost of external tuition, which consumes roughly 33% of the budget. The Board discussed the importance of negotiating fairer tuition rates with out-of-district schools to ensure financial resources are directed efficiently. A point of concern was raised about the need for rigorous student residency checks to prevent paying for students who do not reside in the district. The Board emphasized their role as fiscal stewards and discussed the potential of re-registering students, especially those without younger siblings in the district, to ensure that each student’s residency status is current and accurate.

Note: This meeting summary was generated by AI, which can occasionally misspell names, misattribute actions, and state inaccuracies. This summary is intended to be a starting point and you should review the meeting record linked above before acting on anything you read. If we got something wrong, let us know. We’re working every day to improve our process in pursuit of universal local government transparency.
Superintendent:
Matthew A. Perrapato
School Board Officials:
Victoria Bradley, Brian Bonelli, Michelle Brattoli, Nick Fytros, Leslie Gottlieb, Frank Mele, Purna Patel, Lourdes Villasuso, Ray Vorisek, John Gomez (Business Administrator/Board Secretary)

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