Heights School Tax Increase Double the Cap

Haddon Heights school district will enjoy a 16.2 percent boost to its state aid in 2023-24 under the governor's proposed budget, but the additional $318,000 won't stop the district from having to raise taxes by 4.11 percent, due to skyrocketing health insurance premium costs.

Advocates for increasing accessibility at the Glenview Elementary School, where most of the district's special education classes are held, will be overjoyed to learn the building will finally be getting an elevator, paid for in part by a state grant that covers 40 percent of the estimated $2 million construction cost. Resurfacing Glenview's playground using a handicapped-accessible material called poured-in-place-rubber, another long-sought item, is also included, "which is great news," finance committee chairperson Lisa Long said, though no costs were disclosed.

The budget numbers - all preliminary, stressed business administrator Michael Sloan - were produced as part of the board of education's March 14 meeting. All New Jersey districts have to submit a preliminary budget by the state deadline of March 20, a tight time squeeze considering the state only released the aid figures on March 2. But the large increase this year more than offset the district's small loss last year, and in 2021 the schools were awarded $1.3 million in COVID relief funding. The total state aid the district expects to receive for 2023-24 is $2.3 million.

The more-than-double tax increase is raising the tax levy by $592,000 after only a $283,000 increase last year. Last year's increase resulted in $80 more for the average assessed household in Haddon Heights of $292,000. Sloan declined to give the figure for this year, saying the budget was only preliminary and could change.

Sloan pointed to two major culprits for the doubling: a nearly 10 percent increase in healthcare premiums borne by the district according to its labor contract, an amount that in 2023-24 comprises an astonishing 20 percent ($5.4 million) of the annual budget; and a $300,000 loss in sending-district tuition payments, due to a decline in incoming cohorts from Barrington and Merchantville, each decreasing by approximately 10 percent. Lawn side's larger incoming class is offsetting some of that loss. Tuition from the three sending districts accounts for a large chunk of the district's revenues, projected to be $8.2 million of the $25.6 million general fund revenues next year.

The state has provided protection for districts experiencing the health insurance crunch by allowing an adjustment to the tax rate called the healthcare adjustment clause, Sloan explained. The district is raising the regular tax levy the maximum two percent and adding a 2.11 percent healthcare cost adjustment.

After Sloan delivered the not-great tax news, superintendent Carla Bittner broadly tied the figures to goals the district wants to accomplish next year, using the four categories defined in the strategic plan. Put in place by her predecessor Michael Adams, who rigorously updated the public on each action item at every board meeting, Bittner said one of her superintendent goals was to heavily re-evaluate the five-year plan as it concludes year three.

"There are things in the plan that have already been accomplished, we know; there are things we still want to work on; and there are things we may want to reconsider," she said. "It's time to really narrow down what goals are left and if they should stay." Paid stipend positions (ranging from $1,250 to $2,500) are scheduled to continue in 2023-24, with teachers and admins working on the intermediate action items identified in the plan.

The social-emotional learning goal will benefit from a new full-time hire, a board certified behavioral analyst (BCBA). Previously the district rather expensively outsourced many of its child behavior evaluations, and the new hire will also be responsible for hiring and training instructional aides, to assemble a team of in-house aides instead of relying on a third-party outsourcing company.

"The addition will eventually result in a cost savings for us," remarked Bittner. She also mentioned the possibility of offsetting the new BCBA's salary by contracting with other smaller districts to share services.

Overall, the budget, Bittner said, "is minimal in regards to increases but really good in helping us move our goals forward." Specifically, the budget will continue to support full-day kindergarten as it enters its second year; it will pay for the addition of several Advanced Placement courses as well as elective courses, plus a new approach to teaching basic skills high school English and math; it will enable expansion of a part-time assistant technology position to full-time and maintain an additional full-time special education teacher; and will expand an administrative assistant's job at one of the elementary schools to 12 months from ten.

Aside from the evening's dollars and cents discussion, the board put its emphatic stamp of approval on a student-suggested initiative by adopting a new, greatly simplified dress code, which passed its second reading Tuesday. Written with input from student leaders and sophomore Maddye Napaver, who surveyed her fellow students in the fall and formulated a protest based on her research that showed only females were "dress-coded" by staffers, the new policy boils down acceptable wear to "pants, shorts and skirts must be above the hipline, and shirts must have straps on both shoulders." At issue on many occasions had been the prohibition against tights or leggings, now a popular dress choice for both students and staffers. Tube tops are still on the prohibited list, as are hoodies, slippers with soft soles (UGGs are permitted), any garments that look like underwear, and of course any clothing with profane, obscene, hate-based, or discriminatory messages.

Napaver, who was in the audience Tuesday, got another shout-out from the superintendent as she was one of the Academic Challenge Team members (a HHHS winter varsity sport) crowned champion of its league earlier this month, winning nine of ten matches this winter. HHHS hasn't won the league since 1991, the year it first fielded a team, Napaver noted with a smile when Bittner singled her out. The league includes powerhouse teams like Haddonfield and Eastern high school, and Heights hadn't beaten HMHS one-on-one since 2011. "We crushed them," Napaver said with satisfaction. Matches test four team members' "breadth, specificity, and depth of knowledge" in a wide range of areas, as well as reaction time as participants hit a buzzer, Jeopardy-style, to give their answers.

Also in attendance Tuesday was a contingent of Lawn side parents, accompanied by town council president Dawn Wright-McLeod, seeking information on what the district was specifically doing to increase diversity in its hiring, as part of the diversity-equity-inclusion goal-setting Bittner had referenced earlier.

"As we're becoming a larger percentage of your high-school - as you just pointed out in your budget presentation - it really matters to us to have our students be able to see themselves reflected in your instructors and administrators," said a parent, whose name was indistinguishable due to auditorium acoustics and her mask. Bittner replied that every district faced the diversity-hire challenge as most teachers are white females, but regionally, Washington Township was holding a job fair in April targeted towards attracting minorities to education. HHHS principal Karim Fisher is black, and the parent thanked both him and supervisor of pupil services Michele Mendenhall for their work with Lawnside students.

The board went into a lengthy executive session to interview seven interested candidates for the seat vacated by former president David Clapper last week, eventually choosing former Heights council member Bryan Schroeder. Schroeder served approximately half of his three-year council term before resigning in September 2018, citing work pressure that prevented him "from being able to perform the job to my standards," The Retrospect reported at the time.

This article contains information on the Academic Challenge Team from the HHHS student-published newspaper, The Scribe.