South River Board approves $61.16 million 2025-26 school budget; tax rate rises about 1.31%

The South River Board of Education on Monday approved a $61,161,580 budget for the 2025-26 school year that district officials said preserves staffing levels, adds several student programs and capital items, and limits the local tax increase to about 1.31%.

Dr. Zircher, superintendent of the South River Public School District, opened the public budget hearing with an overview saying the budget is aligned with district goals and state standards, noting priorities that include instruction, special education, facilities maintenance and student mental-health supports. "This budget addresses student programs, instruction, academic improvement, as well as facilities and maintenance, staffing, professional development," Dr. Zircher said during the presentation.

The budget presentation, given in greater detail by Mr. Rosa, broke revenue and expenditure items: $2.8 million in excess surplus carried from the prior year, roughly $32.7 million in state aid (a reported 1.9% reduction from the prior year), $3.1 million in preschool aid, and other federal and local sources that yield the $61,161,580 total. Mr. Rosa said, "This gives us a total of $61,161,580, that's a $26,787 reduction from the year before." He reported the district expects lower federal reimbursements and a drop in some state funding lines, producing about $1.4 million in reductions overall.

District leaders said the budget keeps schools fully staffed and preserves class sizes while adding a number of new or expanded items. Instructional additions include a new AP psychology course, a new K–5 language arts reading program (a districtwide replacement after five years), replacement Chromebooks and additional mental-health services for K–12 students and continued employee assistance program services for staff. In extracurriculars and arts, the package funds a kiln for pottery and adds a junior-varsity boys volleyball team.

On the facilities side, the budget includes a new paging system and wireless access control to finish automatic door locks at the elementary school; a new tractor to replace a roughly 20-year-old machine; fencing for the turf field to restrict use to permits; completion of baseball dugouts over the summer; and budgeted work to add a modular press box to the stadium. The board also budgeted for three new early-learning classrooms (an Education Annex) to be partly funded through an SDA grant from the New Jersey Department of Education and through preschool aid; officials said they plan to equip at least two of those rooms immediately.

Staffing and professional-development items include an audio-visual coordinator to manage new equipment, a special-education supervisor (replacing one existing school social worker), an ESY coordinator, and continued staffing for the district's alternative education program (referred to in the presentation as the Chance Light program). The presentation noted staffing and health-care costs represent about 52% of the total budget—reported as $34,330,416—and that those costs rose about 5.38% from the previous year.

The presentation compared per-pupil spending, reporting the most recent state figures show New Jersey spending about $20,154 per pupil while South River spends about $16,077 per pupil; the presenter said the district remains roughly $10.7 million below an adequacy benchmark cited in the slides. Enrollment was shown as down about 1%; special-education enrollment was projected to increase about 2.47%; English-language-learner numbers were projected to rise about 0.35%; and roughly 53.12% of students were reported as eligible for free or reduced-price programs.

Mr. Rosa said the local tax impact for the average household (median assessed value shown in the presentation) is about a 1.31% increase, or about $10.08 per month, which he translated to roughly $120 per year. The presentation also noted several lease-purchase obligations tapering off in the coming years, and use of capital and maintenance reserves for some one-time projects.

At the close of the hearing the board voted to adopt the budget. The motion was made and seconded from the board; a verbal roll call returned affirmative responses and the chair announced, "Motion carries." The board then adjourned the hearing.

The meeting opening noted this was a public budget hearing posted in accordance with the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act (Chapter 231, Laws of 1975) and that notices had been provided to the South River Borough clerk and local newspapers. No substantive public comments on the budget were recorded during the hearing portion captured in the transcript.