Princeton Schools Adopt $119.2M Budget With Tax Increase

PRINCETON, NJ — The Princeton Board of Education has approved a budget of $119.2 million for the 2024-25 school year. Board members voted on the budget during Tuesday’s meeting.

The budget includes $108.6 million in operating budget, $.4.8 million for debt service and $5.8 million in special revenue fund.

For the 2025 school year, the district is slated to receive $5,825,807 in state aid, an 8.93 percent increase from 2024, where the school district received $5,348,358.

The budget will result in an estimated increase in the effective school tax levy of less than 2.3% for Princeton taxpayers in 2024, school officials said.

This means that the school property tax rate will increase from $1.23 per $100 of assessed value to $1.26, according to a presentation by Business Administrator/Board Secretary Matt Bouldin.

The owner of a home assessed at the average of $844,787 in 2024 will pay $10,678 in school district property taxes.

“I am pleased that we have a budget for the next school year that allows us to maintain our educational excellence while minimizing tax increases,” Acting Superintendent Kathie Foster said in a statement.

According to Bouldin, the budget drivers for the 2024-25 school year includes student needs post-pandemic, teacher scarcity and the need to pay them more to retain them. PPS salaries and benefits have grown by an average annual rate of 4% percent since the 2021-2022 school year, according to Bouldin.

The district also faces a sharp increase in transportation costs. In the last three years, the district transportation costs have increased by 69 percent, according to Bouldin.

"In the face of wide-ranging cost pressures, Princeton Public Schools has effectively managed school budget impacts to our taxpayers while delivering on our educational mission," Bouldin said in a statement.

"Over the past nine years, 2015 through 2024, PPS has limited the effective school tax increase to 1.94% annually."

In the upcoming fiscal year, the local tax levy is projected to account for 81 percent of the revenue for the school district. State aid will make up 8 percent of the budget, and tuition from the Cranbury School District will amount to 5 percent of revenue.

Payments from Princeton University total 2 percent of adopted revenues, and miscellaneous revenue, including tuition paid by staff members who live out of town and who send their children to the Princeton schools, amounts to 1 percent of the total.

“The Board is grateful to the administration for the time they spent reviewing staffing levels across the district and making adjustments as needed to ensure that we had the appropriate staffing levels at each school,” Board President Dafna Kendal said.

"Our first commitment is always to the students and maintaining educational excellence.”

For budget presentation slides, click here.

Watch the budget presentation here:

Have a correction or news tip? Email sarah.salvadore@patch.com