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Pascack Valley board hears $67M preliminary budget, tax levy to rise about 3.4%
Summary
District staff presented the proposed 2025–26 budget with a roughly $67 million general fund and a proposed tax levy increase of about 3.4%; board members reviewed revenue sources, an upcoming $1.6 million capital HVAC project and shifts in special-education funding.
Cynthia Kirk, assistant board administrator for the Pascack Valley Regional High School District, presented the district’s proposed 2025–26 budget on March 17 and said the district will submit a tentative budget to the County Office by March 19 and set a final budget for a board vote on April 28.
Kirk said total revenue for 2025–26 is projected at $69,902,245, with roughly 85% (about $59.6 million) coming from the local tax levy including debt service. She described the general fund as “approximately $67,000,000” and said the district is proposing a general fund tax levy of $57,582,399, a 3.42% increase from the current year. Including debt service, the total tax levy shown on district materials is $59,659,299, which the presentation said equals a 3.33% overall increase.
The presentation laid out the major revenue and expenditure drivers: a rise in health-insurance costs, utilities and special-education services; state and federal aid together comprise about 6% of revenues (approximately $3.9 million); the district plans to use roughly $2.6 million of fund balance; and tuition revenue (students sent by other districts) is budgeted at $767,000.
Kirk said salary and benefits dominate expenditures: $36.3 million for salaries and $10.3 million for employee benefits. Instructional regular programs were listed at about $19.5 million; tuition (out-of-district and county tech/academies) at $5.6 million; special-education instruction at $4.5 million; operations and maintenance about $6.7 million; transportation $3.7 million; and athletics about $2 million. Capital outlay was shown at $1.7 million, which includes a single capital project budgeted at $1,600,000 to replace the Pascack Valley High School media-center rooftop unit.
Kirk also described changes affecting the special-education budget. She said the district is taking a conservative approach because “the allowable costs for special ed are becoming less and less qualified for the extraordinary aid reimbursement,” and that projected extraordinary-aid reimbursement is decreasing for 2025–26.
The presentation included municipality-level tax impacts calculated under New Jersey’s statutory tax-sharing formula (based on taxable property wealth and student enrollment). Using the materials shown, the presentation gave example tax impacts for an average assessed home in each sending town: Hillsdale, Montvale, Rivervale and Woodcliff Lake, with per-year and per-month dollar increases as presented.
No formal motion or roll-call vote on the tentative budget is recorded in the transcript immediately following the presentation; Kirk’s slides and her stated calendar deadlines (submit tentative budget by March 19; final vote set for April 28) were the principal outcomes reported.
For context, board members had heard committee-level budget discussion earlier in the evening during the Finance Committee report and asked a few procedural questions after the presentation. The district will next submit the tentative budget to the County Office and return to the board for the final vote in late April.
