By MADDY VITALE
Sea Isle City’s Board of Education introduced a budget for 2022-2023 that keeps the school tax rate stable for the 11th straight year.
Tuition costs and transportation expenses for students to attend other school districts represent the bulk of the spending in the nearly $2.6 million budget, Jason Frost, school board secretary, detailed on Friday.
The budget will be up for final approval by the school board on May 3 at 7 p.m. at the Community Lodge, 300 JFK Boulevard.
The total operating budget is up from $2.5 million the prior year. Frost noted that he would be able to give specifics on the tax levy at the upcoming meeting. He also noted that the budget is similar to last year's figures.
Of the budget, $2 million will go toward tuition and transportation costs. A small amount of the budget goes toward insurance and administrative costs, Frost said.
“The biggest thing is always transportation and tuition for the kids to go to Ocean City and other schools,” he emphasized.
For the 2021-22 year, a homeowner paid $278 in taxes on a home assessed at $711,000. That figure is similar to what a homeowner will pay in the upcoming budget, Frost noted.
The budget also includes a surplus of $600,000.
“We always carry a good amount of surplus. Not much has changed with the budget since last year,” Frost said.
Sea Isle closed its public school in 2012 due to declining student enrollment. It pays the expense of sending students to Ocean City and other school districts for their education.
“Since they closed the school, there has been no tax increase and the levy has stayed the same,” Frost said.
Last year there was an increase in the number of Sea Isle City students, which broke a longtime downward trend.
The 2020 number of school-age children living in Sea Isle was 79, then increased to 91 in 2021.
But that has changed, and is down again. Currently, the city has 85 students that are sent to schools, namely to Ocean City’s school district. In 2000, 444 school-age children lived in Sea Isle, Frost said.
School Board President Dan Tumolo said in an interview last week that the slight increase in enrollment in 2021-22 was likely reflective of families moving to Sea Isle to attend Ocean City’s in-person option for the school year, when other districts only offered a virtual option during the height of the pandemic.
Frost also touched upon the likely reasoning for the increase last year in enrollment.
“We had a slight increase in the number of students for the 2021-22 year, and I am assuming that a number of people moved to Sea Isle for the school year,” he said.
Budget spending fell when Sea Isle began sending its students in grades fifth through eighth to Ocean City in 2010, followed by third and fourth grades in 2011 and first and second grades in 2012. Then the school was closed because there were not enough students to continue operating it.
Now, the city plans to demolish the old school to make room for a proposed $20 million community recreation center.
Over the years, Sea Isle’s school budget has supported a number of education and community initiatives in the Ocean City school district, including mental health counseling, drug prevention, a creativity innovation project and an SAT testing reimbursement program for students.
The Board of Education also has partnerships with the city and the Sea Isle City Chamber of Commerce and Revitalization for initiatives that benefit local schoolchildren.
