South Brunswick Schools Adopt New Budget With Increased Tax Levy

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ – The South Brunswick Board of Education adopted the 2025-26 school budget last week, while highlighting a $1.7 million loss in state aid.

Since then, the district has come up with revised numbers, which the BOE is expected to approve on Thursday.

Based on revised figures, the base budget for the upcoming school year is $177.3 million, with a general fund of $$164,469,875.

Special revenue fund was calculated at $$11,050,096 and debt service fund at $1,837,125.

The coming year’s budget also has a 7 percent tax increase for residents. An average house assessed at $200,000 will pay $318, the average 6-year tax impact is 85.

The 7 percent increase will raise $9.2 million annually, with $4 million dedicated to infrastructure, $3 million appropriated to salaries and health care and $2 million to fund balance accounts necessary for the district's financial health.

Here’s how the budget funds are allocated in SBSD

• Salaries: 57 percent
• Health benefits: 18 percent
• Energy: 3 percent
• Transportation: 7 percent
• ODD Tuition: 3 percent
• Ins. Supplies: 2 percent
• BGST: 5 percent

Superintendent Scott Feder told the BOE that the district administration has not heard anything about receiving stabilization aid.

Currently, the school district has a total of 7,590 students, with 6,765 full-time regular enrolled students and 824 students enrolled full-time in special ed. These numbers do not include preschoolers.

Feder noted that there has been a drop in enrollment in the school district. He attributed it mostly to the current interest rates and the housing market while noting that most inter-generational households in the township take about 15 years to turn over with a new student.

“Our current homes, with no new construction, house about 9000 students. We're currently sitting at about 7400, which means there are 1600 students in the existing homes that should eventually come back,” Feder said.

He also noted that the new home constructions in the township would bring about another 1600 students to the district, but administrators don’t know when.

“We can't tell you exactly how many will come, what grades they will come to, what the impact will be, but we've already started slating where they'll go,” he said.

So what are the impacts of the budget?

According to Feder, the district will be cutting 41 positions this coming school year, but has not cut any programs. Of the 41, 10 teachers are from the middle school alone.

“We do have people losing their jobs. It's a very upsetting, very tough time, and the big deal is we try to limit disruption,” Feder said.

SBSD has increased behavioral staff, academic coaches, instructional support staff, and guidance counselors to help students navigate the impacts of COVID-19 and social media use.

Staff impacts in the high school are relative to class size. Some courses that the district ran earlier will no longer be offered due to low enrollment.

Another major impact on the budget is facilities maintenance. The district has a 50-year-old roof, which has reached end-of-life and needs to be fixed. Officials are estimating the project to cost $4 million.

The district's tennis courts need to be fixed as well, which would cost around $250,000.

“To wait another year, it'll be more money. The question is - can you wait? The answer is ‘yes.’ Can you wait on the roof? Yes, but you risk causing far more expense and damage and harm,” Feder said.

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Tennis Association is willing to give the district almost $50,000 for repairs to the tennis court. The district needs to apply for the grant.

You can watch the complete BOE meeting here:

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