Ocean City district introduces preliminary 2025–26 budget including $3.6M high‑school roof appropriation

Ocean City School District administrators presented a preliminary 2025–26 budget to the school board at the meeting, proposing general fund appropriations of about $50,860,000 and a total preliminary budget of just over $52.7 million that includes the special revenue fund.

The budget presentation centered on three drivers: rising employee benefits (including a projected 9.5% increase in health benefits), a projected decline in tuition revenue as sending districts send fewer students, and a proposed $3,600,000 appropriation from capital reserve to show the local match for a high‑school roof grant. “We're looking at about a 9.5% increase overall on our health benefits,” the presenter said, and later noted that the district is including the local 60% share in the budget to pursue a state grant that would fund roughly 40% of the roof project.

Why it matters: the preliminary budget would be introduced to the county and New Jersey Department of Education for review and returned to the board ahead of a public hearing (the presenter said the hearing is scheduled for May 1). The plan would use a somewhat larger portion of the district's fund balance and proposes raising the tax levy to the full cap, producing a small tax‑rate increase that the administration tied to program and benefit cost pressures.

Most important details

- Totals and process: The presenter described this meeting as the budget introduction; the district will send the preliminary budget to the county office and the New Jersey Department of Education for review, then hold a public hearing on May 1.

- Health and benefits: The district projects about a 9.5% increase in health benefit costs. “We have been able to minimize some of those increases” by participating in a regional pool, the presenter said, but employee benefits still rise from roughly $8.4 million to just over $9.0 million.

- Capital project and grant match: The budget includes a $3,600,000 appropriation from capital reserve to show the local 60% match for a planned high‑school roof replacement; the presenter said the project estimate is roughly $3.36 million and that the district must show local appropriations in the introduced budget to be eligible for a state grant that would cover 40% of the cost.

- State aid and tuition: The presenter reported a 3% year‑over‑year decline in general formula state aid and described a state “floor” that limited losses to 3%; that produced a net formula‑aid loss of about $49,000 rather than a larger reduction the formula initially produced. The district also projects a decline of about 23 tuition students from sending districts and warned that tuition revenue is a material revenue source for Ocean City.

- Fund balance and tax impact: The presentation said the district expects to use about $1.1 million of fund balance in the general fund (an increase from prior practice of roughly $900,000). The introduced budget proposes using the full tax levy cap; the presenter said that translates to a proposed half‑cent increase in the tax rate, which he illustrated as a $32.50 annual increase for a home with $650,000 assessed value and roughly $5 per $100,000 of assessed value.

Next steps and follow up

The presenter said the board would vote on the introduced budget as part of the meeting agenda and then submit the preliminary budget to the county and state for review. The board will hold the public hearing on May 1, after which further changes may be made before final adoption.

Ending

Board members asked clarifying questions about the drivers of special‑education aid changes, the timing of capital projects and the availability of the full budget document for review. The administration said it would provide the budget documents to board members and stakeholders and return with any requested follow‑up before the May public hearing.