Vote pleases board
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
5/1/2009

Residents approve district’s $171 million budget

Another school budget season has come to a close and school district representatives are happy with the outcome.

Cherry Hill voters approved the district’s $171 million budget. According to unofficial results posted on the school district Web site, the budget passed by a vote of 3,606 to 1,960.

Residents with an average assessed home will see their school tax bill go up by about $8 from their 2008 bill.

The budget features a tax rate of $3.19 per every $100 of assessed property value.

According to Business Administrator Jim Devereaux, an average assessed home of $140,000 will pay about $4,468 in school taxes next year.

Public Information Officer Susan Bastnagel lauded the hard work from the board and district administrators in crafting a budget the township could support.

“The board worked very hard to build a budget to keep the tax levy flat,” she said. “I believe that’s why the budget passed in these difficult times.”

The district will also have two new faces on the board of education, as Board President Sharon Giaccio and Vice President Robert Russo chose not to run for re-election.

Colleen Harron-Horiates and Wayne Tarken ran unopposed for the two vacant seats and received 3,842 and 3,806 votes. Incumbent candidate Kathy Judge led the way with 3,925 votes.

The board of education were scheduled to elect a new president and vice president at the annual reorganization meeting April 28.

The flat tax levy came with several sacrifices. The equivalent of more than 63 full-time employees were eliminated from the district for the next school year, for a total budget savings of more than $3.8 million.

Among the cuts to keep the school tax levy flat for 2009-2010 were the reduction of the Mt. Misery Environmental program, the elimination of two special education teachers at the high school level and the elimination of the in-school support program.

The Mt. Misery Environmental program was actually saved from being completely eliminated after board members compromised and only removed one day from the program. For 2009-2010, the program will be four days and three nights. Despite the cuts, Bastnagel said the community realized it was the best possible budget available for the school district at this time.

“Our community supports education and it values education. Our residents came out and they supported the budget,” she said.