Welcome to the Glassboro School District. I am pleased to announce that on March 27, 2013, our Board of Education adopted a 2013-2014 budget that balances our residents’ needs to keep tax increases low with our expectations of providing a quality education.
This budget brings investments in safety, technology and instruction. The safety of our students and staff remains a priority. In accordance with this, the district budget includes defibrillator training, additional doors with keyless access and the installation of 10 – 12 bus cameras. Technology investments include interactive projectors at GHS and GIS, activity tables at J. Harvey Rodgers and Dorothy L. Bullock School and interactive touch screens at GHS, GIS and Thomas E. Bowe Schools. We will also update busing software to realize more efficiency in our routes and upgrade TV Production Studio equipment to high definition digital systems. We have channeled support to Independent Classroom Libraries at Rodgers, additional musical instruments for the expanding Performing Arts Academy (cellos, violas, violins, a marching tuba, etc.) and shades in areas of GIS and Bullock. To stay aligned with our 5-year textbook plan, we will be purchasing textbooks for multiple content areas across grades 7 through 12.
At Bowe School, full funding for Building Men, Renaissance, Student Council, Beginner and Advanced Band and Orchestra, Choir and Yearbook has been returned along with an after school activity bus. The district focused on Bowe because activities were restored at other schools in previous years.
Our STEM Academy will join the Fine and Performing Arts Academy in bringing increased opportunities to Glassboro residents and school choice students. The district is purchasing technology, honors biology, AP chemistry and project engineering supplies along with honors biology, honors physics and AP chemistry textbooks.
These investments will allow our district to continue to provide a top-notch education for our students while keeping taxes to a 3.7¢ increase, a $71 increase for the average-assessed ($188,444) home in Glassboro. This was made possible by conservative spending practices in an effort to keep taxes down.
We faced a $122 tax increase with our initial budget projections. That amount was unacceptable, so we applied the District’s Fund Balance to lowering taxes to $97. We still felt that was too high. Finally, medical benefit expense projections came in lower than expected and the Board of Education chose to use the difference to reduce the tax increase to a $71 average. The Borough of Glassboro had an unanticipated decrease in ratables impacting the budget by $18. Had that not occurred, the increase would have been $53, well below the historical average.
For more information, please see the online presentation located under the Budget Information on the Board of Education Menu of the district website. Thank you for the support you show for our schools.
Sincerely,
Superintendent Mark J. Silverstein, MBA, Ed.D
