District Business Administrator Ronald Latham Jr. explains the budget, which totals more than $103 million, an increase over last year.
The Deptford board of education laid out the school district’s budget for the 2025-’26 school year at its meeting on May 6, and it calls for a tax hike.
The financial plan totals $103,575,482, an increase from last year’s $101,686,220 that is attributed to higher costs for district services. The transportation budget alone has increased by $434,086, raises for teachers will increase by $1.8 million and health-care premiums will go up by $2.8 million.
“We’re very proud of the contracts we can offer both the DEA, the Deptford Education Association, student teachers, custodians or paraprofessionals, but also the administrators,” said Superintendent Kevin Kanauss. “We’re very proud of what we can offer for our staff.
“We try to hire and train the best, but it does come at a cost.”
State aid has gone down because of fewer enrollments, while federal grants decreased by about $318,000. The result is that the district is calling for a 4.1% increase in the residential tax levy. That’s a hike of about $10 per month for a home assessed at $183,500. Total tax revenue will equal $49,475,796.
“We’re not hiding that, we’ve been very up front about it, we’ve been very communicative about that to the district and our district has a lot of residents here,” Kanauss noted. “They’re very well aware of that and we’re here to tell you we’re not hiding it. It’s exactly what we have to do to make things more successful.”
According to the board, the budget process was further challenged by the fact that the district would only get a state aid increase if it levied more taxes on residents, something the board does not want to do.
“The state’s saying the taxpayers have to pay more,” explained Business Administrator Ronald Latham Jr. “There’s this thing called a district adequacy budget. This is how the state says. ‘Ok, this is how much money you’re getting for Deptford.’ The tax levy is what I suggested for this year, a 4.1% increase, equalization aid ($26,370,280), that’s the state aid. They look at how many students we have, so we have a total of $75.8 million.
“Well, according to the state, they’re saying that the local fair share – local taxpayers – should be $59 million,” Latham added. “They’re not the ones here in the buildings, teaching, balancing the budget, running a school district. They’re the ones saying $85.8 million, that should do it for Deptford, and they want the taxpayers to pitch in for more.”
The conflict has led to district underfunding of about $10 million a year. Part of that has to do with aging schools, many of which were built in the 1950s and ’60s and were not designed to handle the current student population and transportation services.
Despite budget increases, preschool and kindergarten will remain in the district, and sports and other extracurricular activities will not change.
The next board of ed meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10.
