Tax levy increasing in Oceanside next year

The Oceanside Board of Education adopted the district’s proposed budget last week, finalizing the nearly $134 million spending plan that residents will vote on in May, which includes a $2.46 million increase to the district’s tax levy.

The meeting on March 20 was the final in the district’s series of four budget workshops. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Herb Brown discussed the final details of the budget — staffing, revenues and the tax levy.

Brown discussed the changes to the district’s staff in the upcoming year. While there will be a slight staffing reduction, it is nothing compared to the exodus that occurred at the end of last year because of the retirement incentive the district offered teachers and staff. There will be 15 fewer teachers next year, mostly from the middle school and high school.

“We do have some declining enrollment in the district, which reduces the number of teachers that we need,” Brown explained. “And if you were at the board meeting when our middle school principal, Dr. [Allison] Glickman-Rogers, made a presentation on a new middle school organization for next year, we indicated that would reduce about eight or nine positions from the middle school. We’re also reducing some positions at the high school, also because of declining enrollment.”

Two middle school math teachers will be let go, as well as two personal finance and human relations teachers. The middle and high schools will both be losing an ELA teacher, and OHS will also be losing one social studies teacher.

There is only one teacher leaving at the elementary classroom level, which won’t affect class sizes next year, Brown said. There will be nearly the same number of classes in all elementary school next year, with either one more or less in some of the schools.

The other large part of the budget discussion was the district’s revenue, which includes the tax levy. The tax levy is the amount of money that the district needs to raise through taxes. It’s calculated by subtracting all of the district’s other revenue from its total expenses.