BOE revises 2024-2025 school budget

BELMAR — The Belmar Board of Education (BOE) unanimously voted to adopt a revised 2024-2025 school budget that allows for an additionally increased tax levy of 1%, to 4.31%, at its July 16 meeting.

Business Administrator Michael Bardsley explained to the board that the adjustment in the budget is made possible through a newly signed state Senate bill that allows for school districts that experienced a reduction in state school aid for the upcoming school year compared to the 2020-2021 school year to implement a one-time additional adjustment to its tax levy.

“We’re allowed to take that difference and add that and take that into the tax levy to increase the tax levy up to 9.9%,” he said.

The difference of these two school years totals $95,717, as the BOE received $899,076 in 2020-2021 compared to $803,359 in 2024-2025. This equates to a 1% increase in tax levy from the BOE’s original April 25 tentative budget.

This increase will still have Belmar’s accumulated operational funding decrease by the state aid cuts by $564,708, since the S2 state aid reduction has been introduced, Bardsley explained.

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