Bellmawr School District Approves $17 Million Budget

The Bellmawr Board of Education (BOE) voted to approve its tentative $16,981,271 budget for 2016-17. The budget has been submitted to the county for approval.

There will be a public hearing on the budget at the next BOE meeting on Wednesday, April 27. Additional details about the budget, including any potential tax impact, will be available then.

During the business portion of the meeting, the BOE voted to approve all business on its agenda. Approved Resolutions included:

• Payment of bills for the grand total of $1,478,271.73.
• Race to the Top – Preschool Expansion Cooperative Agreement and submission of the District Budget Planning Workbook for the Fiscal Year 2016-17.
• An acceptance of a donation of 2,880 pencils from EIRC (donated to EIRC by Office Depot.
• The support of restoring and preserving the historic Hugg-Harrison-Glover (1764) House.
• The implementation of “Green Days,” which are volunteer activities that will occur in the Spring and Fall for the purpose of improving the schools.
• The acceptance of various items received through Donors Choose for the MD class at Burke School.

Additionally, the BOE approved first reading of various policies and regulations. Among them were setting time limits on the public comment portion during the meetings, recording board meetings, and outstanding food service charges.

In other matters, School Superintendent, Annette Castiglione, spoke about cancelling future fundraisers. She stated that the Philadelphia Soul game fundraiser was cancelled because there wasn’t a good response, perhaps if they were to use software to help fundraising for nonprofits they’d garner a little more attention.

Mrs. Castiglione explained why she is cancelling future fundraisers: “It’s not because I don’t like fundraisers or I am being capricious or arbitrary. I know how difficult it has been for the parents in terms of the excessive amounts of fundraising. We are looking into the possibility of doing district wide fundraising that involves all three schools. I would like to explore a way that fundraising can be done that is not so burdensome to our families.”

The BOE also recognized IT support technician, John DiBlasio, as staff member of the month.

Teachers, Brandi Spitznas and Alyssa Heck, gave a presentation on the seventh and eighth grade reading curriculum, Collections.

Instructional Technologist, Dana Litwornia, gave a presentation on benchmark reading.

The BOE will meet next on April 27. The work session begins at 5:00 p.m. and the regular meeting will follow at 6:00 p.m. in the Bell Oaks Media Center.