The Haddonfield Board of Education unanimously approved a 2 percent budget increase for the 2013-14 school year Thursday during a regular meeting. The increase means a typical homeowner with a property valued at $491,359 will pay $7,308 in school taxes, $194.40 more than last year.
School officials said they want to keep programs and staffing at current levels and not reduce them to balance the budget.
School Superintendent Richard Perry and the school board cited increases in teacher and administration salaries, text book and extracurricular costs for a $450,259 deficit. But the biggest driver of increased costs was a 24-percent spike for special education instruction.
Perry said special-education costs increased from $801,665 to $993,718, a $192,053 difference. He said most of these costs are for tuition for some special-education students outside of the district. Perry said their placement outside of the district is based on recommendations from professionals about the best learning environment for them or sometimes the wishes of parents.
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Despite comments made during last night's meeting, I am very surprised that you went ahead with this post. Out of district special education placements only account for 2.9% of the total BOE budget. That is less than 1 million dollars of a 34 million dollar budget. Furthermore, Dr. Perry acknowledged that special ed. placements are recommended to the BOE by their own Child Study Team brought to the BOE by the Special Ed. Director and then approved by the BOE. To infer, that the wishes of parents is the sole determinant of a placement is erroneous and misleading. A parent is only one member of the team. In addition, with the current economic climate, the Special Ed. Director makes EVERY attempt to keep children in the district so they are "educated to the fullest extent possible with their non-disabled peers" as they are required by law. Much like salaries and benefits (21.5 million, 63.7% of the budget) which is a BOE-approved contract, placements are approved and become non-discretionary. I believe scrutiny should and can only be reserved for the discretionary spending which included expenses not related to education such as the $142,000 approved to pay bills related to the failed referendum, the $154,000 commitment to the turf fields, non-mandated extracurricular expenses and capital improvements to give just some examples. An increase of special education tuition ($192,000) is not "the biggest driver" for the district with a nearly $34 million dollar budget!