Voters asked for $4.56 million more a year on November 3

What happened

On August 19, 2026 the board voted unanimously to put an operating referendum on the November 3, 2026 ballot asking Collingswood voters for an additional $4,560,822 a year. The district says the money would maintain existing staff, sustain student support services, keep schools running and preserve core programming; it is not for buildings. The figure is the expected scenario in the district's own long-range financial analysis. Administrators told the board the amount can later be reduced but never raised, and that the filing had to reach the state the next day to meet the November deadline. They also said that if it fails, all athletics and activities at every level move to pay-to-play, that class sizes outside pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and special education have no legal cap and would be back on the table, and that a further school closure is possible.

Why it matters to families

Collingswood has no other way to raise local money. Its 2026-27 levy is exactly its legal maximum and its cap worksheet records zero banked capacity, this year and carried forward. The district's own published referendum material does not say what the $4.56 million would cost a household or whether the increase is permanent, which are the two questions a voter is most likely to ask. For scale, the district put this year's much smaller 6.43% levy rise at about $332 a year on an average assessed home of $448,100.

The evidence

The district's operational referendum overview states that following a unanimous board vote on August 19, 2026, Collingswood voters will consider a $4.56 million ballot question on November 3, 2026, lists what it would fund and what would be considered if it fails, and separately lists school nurses, social workers, elementary instrumental lessons, athletics and transport, clubs, theatre, Chromebooks and the school television studio as things state law does not require. The August 19, 2026 recording records the resolution being amended to $4,560,822 and approved 8 to 0. The long-range analysis gives an expected structural gap of $4,560,822. The budget cap worksheet records banked cap available as zero.

The source