'Two Key Initiatives' Focus Of OK'd Collingswood School 2022-23 Budget

COLLINGSWOOD, NJ — Supporting equity initiatives and learning acceleration and supporting Collingswood Public School District infrastructure, were the "two key initiatives" that drove a lot of the decision-making process surrounding the school district's $37.6 million budget for the 2022-2023 school year, according to District Superintendent Fredrick McDowell.

The first part of the first key initiative, equity, is not the same as equality, McDowell explained at the April 25 School Board Meeting.

"Equality is where everybody gets the same thing," he said. "Equity means that some children get more, some children get less and some children are able to maintain based on specific services .... we're making sure that we're not comparing students to students, but we're comparing with wherever a child happens to be with wherever the standard is and making sure that we're filling in those gaps to ensure that every child is able to meet that set standard."

The second part of this first initiative, learning acceleration, involves teachers "regularly assessing" how well each of their students is in complance with Department of Education regulations and then adjust the student's curriculum as needed, according to McDowell.

He added that infrastructure became the second key initiative when he recognized No. 1, the "youngest" facility in the district was between 60 and 70 years old and No. 2, the school district's population is growing at a rate that puts space at a "premium."

To that end, McDowell said the school district budget includes ways of maximizing what continue to invest in an annual building maintenance on each campus, investing in equipment to support and enhance school safety and security and continuing to ensure each student has his or her computer.

"There were many positives that we were able to learn from the pandemic," he said. "We're going to continue to grow based on what we've learned, which is to provide our students [with] opportunities to not just learn within the constraints of the four walls of their classroom."

The 2022-2023 school district budget also keeps the curriculum largely the same for that school year as it was in 2021-2022, with the Latin language, music, arts, TV and film programs intact, McDowell added.

The 2022-2023 school district's additions and carryovers mean that taxes for school district taxpayers will increase by about $80 annually for a family whose home is assessed at $500,000, according to Beth Ann Coleman, the school district's business administrator.

"If you include the debt that was previously approved in 2005, and then refinanced in 2011, it's about $83 [annually] if your house is [assessed at] $500,000," she said.

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