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Board reviews state "Taxpayer’s Guide to Educational Spending" comparisons
Summary
A staff presenter walked the Collingswood Public School District board through the New Jersey Department of Education’s annual spending comparisons, showing the district ranked near the middle of its peer group on per‑pupil costs and noting rising benefit expenses.
At a public meeting of the Collingswood Public School District Board of Education, a staff presenter reviewed the New Jersey Department of Education’s annual Taxpayer’s Guide to Educational Spending and highlighted the district’s placement within its peer group and several cost drivers.
The presenter said the district’s total cost per pupil has been “right in the middle” of its peer group over the past three reporting years, and that about 59.6% of the classroom cost per pupil is salary and benefits. “The entire Excel workbook for all of this data is attached to the board agenda,” the presenter told board members, noting the guide compares more than 600 districts but ranks districts within enrollment peer groups.
The presenter emphasized support services (nurses, guidance, library services), administrative costs, legal services, and operations and maintenance as the indicators they watch most closely when planning the budget. On administrative costs the presenter said the district’s rank in the peer group has fluctuated (20th, 20th, 24th across three years) and that the state average administrative cost per pupil in 2023–24 was $1,815 compared with the district’s $1,830. On legal services the presenter observed the district “really don’t use our attorneys very much” and that the district’s peer rank moved between years.
The presenter called out benefits as a fast‑growing line item: the district’s benefits share rose from about 33.2% in 2021–22 to roughly 38% for 2023–24, above the state average of 36.6% for 2023–24. “It’s the cost of prescription. It’s just killing everybody,” the presenter said, adding that benefits are difficult for districts to control.
Board members asked no substantive follow‑up questions during the presentation. The presenter noted that the full set of 16 indicators is posted in the finance committee documents in BoardDocs and suggested the Department of Education could publish comparable testing data in a similar format.
Why it matters: The Taxpayer’s Guide is one of the state’s publicly available comparative tools and is often used in budget planning and community discussions to show how local spending compares to similar districts. The numbers highlighted by the presenter — particularly the rising share of benefits — are a primary driver of budget pressure that the board will consider during upcoming budget development.
