The township board of education adopted its proposed 2026-’27 school budget at an April 28 meeting and public hearing.
Superintendent Dr. George Rafferty and Robert Wachter, school district business administrator and board secretary, presented the proposed budget, and Rafferty noted that student enrollment – currently at 4,751 – had stayed consistent over the past decade.
“(Wachter) and I have been working together to do this presentation for just over 10 years, and some of the facts on these (presentation) slides stayed the same, while some have changed dramatically, and one of them (staying the same) is our enrollment,” Rafferty said.
“Mount Laurel is a district where enrollment has remained stable, and in some regard has grown, which is a good thing, because all of our state funding is tied into student enrollment. That’s really the thing that makes the state take money away …”
The district expects $8.5 million in state aid, an increase of $485,706 from the 2025-’26 financial plan. The total budget is $109.7 million, up 1.69% – or $1.8 million – from last year. It includes $93.5 million in general funds, $12.8 million in special revenue and $3.2 million in debt services.
The proposed tax levy is 5.82%, up from 4.98% in last year’s budget. The increase in school taxes will be 5.82%, or $178.55 for the year, based on the average assessed home.
The financial plan would fund curriculum costs for classroom and digital materials, ESL resources, and elementary-school gym equipment. It would also pay for upgrades to Mount Laurel Hartford School’s main office and security, as well as capital improvements like duct cleaning and repairs at Hillside, Countryside, Fleetwood and Parkway elementary schools.
Purchases in the budget are two 54-passenger buses, two 24-passenger buses, live GPS and camera system units, and routing software system upgrades.
“These are all smaller projects,” Wachter noted. “But when you put them all together, it really adds (a lot to the budget). This past winter, we had some district-wide issues with the heavy, wet snow a few times (that) caused some additional roof leaks.”
Wachter pointed out that the budget does not account for new hires; the district will hire only to replace vacancies from resignations and retirements.
“We’re not cutting staff,” he explained, “but the staff that is leaving, we will be replacing not all, but most of them.”
Seventy-two percent of the proposed budget’s revenue comes from the school tax and 18.67% from state aid, with 7.39% generated by the district and 1.32% in federal aid. Instructional programs comprise 80.13% of revenue, with 6% spent on operations, 5% on administrative costs, 4.5% on transportation, 3% on debt service and 1% on capital overlay.
