Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RED BANK: DISTRICT TAX UP TWO PERCENT

red-bank-middle-school-080220-1-500x375-5609230The budget includes funding for a counselor to help stressed students, Rumage said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot-topic_03-220x138-220x138-7378486Federal and state grants to offset pandemic-related expenses helped keep the Red Bank school district tax increase at two percent for the second year in a row, Superintendent Jared Rumage said Tuesday night.

red-bank-schools-levy-increases-042622-pdf-500x345-1143094

Gradually improving but still inadequate state funding has helped curb tax increases over the last eight years, Rumage said. (Click to enlarge.)

At its monthly meeting, held at the primary school, the board of education unanimously approved a $28.7 million spending plan that calls for a local tax levy of $19.2 million for the 2022-2023 session. That’s an increase of $386,469.

The impact on the average home, assessed at $470,194, was not available.

The budget includes a $1.61 million increase in retained state aid, after passing through $2.63 million to the autonomous Red Bank Charter School.

Still, the state’s funding this year is $4.4 million below “adequacy” as set by the Department of Education’s own formula, Rumage said. That extends a series of shortfalls over the past decade that has put Red Bank schools $44.1 million behind where they should be, he said.

“We stretch every penny as far as we can,” said board member and finance committee chair Sue Viscomi.

The budget maintains all existing programs, Rumage said. It also allows for hiring four additional staffers, including a counselor needed to help students, whom he said are stressed by “isolation, depression, anger, the threat of homelessness or relocation their families have confronted during the pandemic.”

Rumage, hired as superintendent in 2014, said the plan was “the by-product of eight years of creativity and planning, eight years of Dreaming BIG, eight years of striving to be the best school district in America, and 8 years of adapting, evolving and improving to best serve the students, families and community of Red Bank. And while it has been a great eight years… the best is yet to come.”

A referendum that passed by a 2-to-1 voter margin in 2019 helped, enabling the district to undertake capital projects at pre-pandemic interest rates and prices. “And we did the right thing by keeping it tax neutral,” so that debt service remained level, Rumage told redbankgreen.

Neither of the two people in the audience, both district employees, commented during the public session.

Total enrollment is forecasted to dip below 1,300, a decline of about 53 students, in the coming school year.

Here’s the so-called “user-friendly” version of the budget: Red Bank Schools budget 2022-2023

And here’s the slideshow presentation: Red Bank Schools Budget Presentation 042622

If you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen, please become a paying member. Click here for details about our new, free newsletter and membership information.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
Performers at Red Bank’s Juneteenth community celebration Sunday at Johnny Jazz Park. (photo by Brian Donohue)      
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...
RED BANK: NEW HANDICAPPED PARKING, WEST SIDE MEETING PLANNED
New handicapped parking sign West Side advocate had pressed for is installed, with meeting planned to discuss other concerns. (click to read ...
SUNSET AT SUMMER’S START
Crazy sunset clouds shot from Monmouth Boat Club on the Friday evening at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. ...
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.
JAY AND SILENT EAGLE
A very loud blue jay squawks at an indiferent bald eagle in a treetop alongside the Swimming River in Red Bank this week. (Partyline photo b ...
PIZZA LOVING SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN RED BANK
Pizza squirrel spotted in Red Bank. (click to read)
GET YOUR MA SOMETHIN’ NICE AT THE RED BANK FARMERS MARKET
It’s a beautiful and sunny Mother’s Day for the first instance of the farmer’s market, held every Sunday, beginning in May ...
SIGN? WHAT SIGN?
Folks in Red Bank Wednesday exercising their riparian rights to access tidal waters first encoded into Roman law in 500 AD and later adopted ...
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Partyline contributor captures photo of backyard fox.