Washington Township board reviews tentative 2026'27 budget, approves finance items and relies on surplus and state aid boost

The Washington Township Board of Education on March 18 reviewed and approved submission of the district's tentative 2026'27 budget to the county, while approving several associated finance items and fielding public concern about personnel cuts.

Budget presenter Mrs. Wechter told the board the district must submit a tentative budget to the county office of education for state Department of Education review and then advertise it; a public hearing is scheduled for April 28, with final adoption expected later in the spring. "This is just a quick timeline, tonight is the presentation and approval of the tentative budget," she said.

Wechter said the district's state aid notification produced a net increase of $1,500,000 and that, including health-care adjustments, the district is budgeting about $15,000,000 in additional revenue overall. She cautioned that some aid categories, such as extraordinary-aid reimbursement for special education, remain uncertain until after the fiscal year: those claims are submitted in May and finalized the following August.

Board members and administrators described tight structural pressures: the 2% tax-levy cap yields only about $2.1 million in levy growth for the district under current rules, while state health-benefit costs increased sharply. "The state health benefits increase is over 31%," Wechter said, adding that the combined effect of limited levy growth and rising benefits creates budgetary strain.

To shore up the 2026'27 plan the presentation relies in part on excess surplus generated in 2024'25 (described as the result of constrained spending that year) and on a capital strategy that includes an energy-savings improvement plan. Wechter said the district has identified roughly $16 million in energy projects that would be financed through bonds and repaid from energy savings so the work would come at "no cost for the taxpayer," listing LED lighting, targeted boiler and HVAC replacements, and other efficiency measures as examples.

Public comment focused on staffing, the use of Title I funds, and outsourcing of tutoring. Candace Moroz, a longtime Washington Township resident and high-school teacher, asked the board to "reconsider these decisions, reinvest in the teachers and support staff," saying proposed cuts to teachers, interventionists and librarians would reduce day'to'day supports for students. "A tutoring service cannot replace the daily impacts of a classroom teacher," she said.

Administrators clarified that the tutoring RFP referenced on the agenda is for Title I services and was not intended to replace teachers: "The tutoring RFP that you see on here is not to replace teachers. It's for Title I services," an administrator said, adding the district had posted positions that went unfilled and issued an RFP to meet Title I obligations.

A separate commenter raised the cost of hiring outside tutors (asking about a line item of $128,000 for eight contracted tutors through June), asked whether older boilers could be repaired rather than replaced, and requested public records of email correspondence between administrators for a specified date range. The administration responded that some boilers are too old to find parts and that patch repairs have not been cost-effective.

On the consent agenda, the board moved and approved human-resources items (1'12) during a roll call vote and later voted on finance and facilities items 1 through 3; the record shows items 1 and 2 passed while item 3 did not pass. The board also received routine committee reports and scheduled upcoming meetings.

What happens next: the tentative budget will be submitted to the county office for review and, if approved for advertising, the district will hold the public hearing on April 28; any changes between the advertised tentative budget and the final budget will be presented at that hearing prior to adoption.

Budget documents and the full agenda identify specific line items and policy references for further public review; the board asked members of the public to submit questions in advance or speak at the April public hearing.