Berkeley Heights having the highest per-pupil cost with the lowest rankings makes Sense

It’s probably not the number of buildings, and we are definitely not spending money on textbooks and supplies.

In one of the Budget Meetings, one BOE member (condescendingly) brushed off the concerns about our high pupil cost, implying that it was a function of the number of buildings the Berkeley Heights School District had. She also brought up Westfield as a better comparison to Berkely Heights. So far, our comparisons to Westfield and every other better-performing District on our table have pointed to our Administrative and Legal Costs as anomalies. So I looked at one indicator (Total Operations and Maintenance of Plant) to see if this BOE Member was correct.

As it turns out (based on the 2022 NJ Taxpayers Guide), Westfield, which I thought would have had a comparable cost to Berkeley Heights based on the BOE Member’s statement, ended up having a far lower per pupil cost in this area than Berkeley Heights. Looking at the entire table, Berkeley Heights was in the middle of the pack.

In other words, the number of buildings the Berkeley Heights Public School District has does not explain our high pupil cost or our last-in-place ratings and rankings in this table.

Another real concern for families is how much this District spends on textbooks and in-class supplies. Our District’s per-pupil spending on that is about 0.9% of the budget and comes to about $174 per pupil- the lowest per-pupil spend and % of the budget of any other District on that table.

So it’s not the teachers educating our children, its not the support services in place for our children, its not the buildings our children learn in and it’s not textbooks. The money driving our incredibly high per pupil cost appears to be going to administrators and lawyers.  

Berkeley Heights having the highest per-pupil cost with the lowest rankings is making sense.  

Related Content:

BHCW NIGHT WATCH EPISODE 15

2023 BHPSNJ BUDGET PRE-MEETING WRAP UP

04/27/2023 Post on Legal Fees

04/25/2023 Post on Administrative Costs

04/24/2023 Post on Ratings, Support Services and State Aid

04/23/2023 Note on Median Salaries

04/24/2023 Follow up on Median Salaries

04/25/2023 Snap Shot on in-class Instruction

04/23/2023 Post on Ratings and Rankings