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Mount Olive board adopts $136.5M 2026'27 budget after public hearing
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Summary
After a public hearing, the Mount Olive Township School District Board approved its 2026'27 advertised budget, citing $39 million in state aid, a planned $1 million in extraordinary aid, and a tax-levy increase driven partly by a health-care adjustment; administrators estimated new staff costs at about $400,000 plus benefits.
The Mount Olive Township School District Board of Education approved its advertised 2026'27 budget during its public meeting, after a presentation by Superintendent Dr. Banjo and Business Administrator Mishoni and a period of board and public questions.
Business Administrator Mishoni told the board the district received a $275,000 decrease in state aid from earlier expectations and that state aid for the budget totals about $39,000,000. "Over the past five years, the district has lost about $5,000,000 in extraordinary aid," Mishoni said, adding that the district is budgeting about $1,000,000 in extraordinary aid for next year but must apply to the state and is not guaranteed full reimbursement. Mishoni said the advertised budget totals about $136,500,000.
Mishoni also described revenue and levy calculations: local property taxes remain the primary funding source, and a built-in health-care adjustment in the budget software produced a 6.48% tax-levy increase tied to an assumed 20% rise in health-care costs. "That health care adjustment is the result of a software calculation... in this case, we're anticipating a 20% increase," Mishoni said.
The superintendent and administrators emphasized program expansions that drove staffing needs: adding a fourth sixth-grade team at the middle school model, expanding multilingual staffing (from roughly 120 ML students five years ago to more than 230 now), adding gifted-and-talented coverage, and enlarging the ASD (autism spectrum disorder) program with new sections at SandShore and at the middle school. Mishoni estimated the personnel cost for new staff at about $400,000 with roughly $100,000 additional in benefit costs annually.
Administrators also highlighted capital projects planned in the budget, including rooftop-unit replacements, partial roof work at Mountain View, auxiliary gym floor replacement, a high-school elevator replacement and other facility repairs funded in part by a $3.5 million capital-reserve withdrawal and $3.6 million in capital outlay.
During public comment residents pressed the board on recurring personnel costs and the risk that future state aid reductions would require cuts to staff or programs. The board president described long-range planning and noted legal limits on using capital reserves for personnel costs.
The budget and a consent package of action items (6.1 through 10.2) were approved by roll-call vote as part of the consent agenda. Several board members recorded abstentions on specific personnel items, but the overall consent motion, including the advertised budget, passed.
The district said a user-friendly version of the advertised budget would be posted on the district website the day after the meeting for public review; the county had already approved the preliminary budget on April 20. The board will proceed with the implementation steps identified in the adopted documents.
