A military-connected Burlington County district where school taxes rose about a quarter in one year to pay for health insurance - and where the board's own meeting record is not published anywhere this page can reach.
Who pays for Pemberton's schools, and where is the board's record?
Nine schools, a majority state- and federally funded budget, a 26% tax rise, and a meeting record published only on a portal this page cannot store
Pemberton Township School District teaches about 4,200 children in nine schools across Pemberton Township, Pemberton Borough and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Nine unpaid board members are elected at the November general election to staggered three-year terms, and the board works in pairs of meetings each month - a work session followed by an action meeting. Unusually for New Jersey, local property tax is the smaller part of the budget: of $135,886,516 for 2026-27, state and federal aid supplies $76,703,402, including $61,820,738 of equalisation aid and federal impact aid for the base, against $45,902,699 raised locally. That balance did not spare taxpayers this year. State health insurance rates rose about 32%, adding just under $6 million, and the board used a health-care cost adjustment and banked cap to raise the levy from $26,227,995 to $33,047,274, about 26%, while cutting more than $1.1 million of staff including four elementary teaching posts. The harder problem for a reader is that the board's agendas and minutes for all twenty-one of its meetings this year are published only through its vendor portal, which this project cannot retrieve documents from, so this page carries almost no record of what the board actually voted on.
State and federal money is the majority of the budget
$76,703,402 of state and federal aid against $45,902,699 raised locally for 2026-27. Equalisation aid alone is $61,820,738, and the district holds an $11,688,430 impact aid reserve reflecting the Joint Base community it serves.
The levy still rose about 26%
From $26,227,995 to $33,047,274. A Pemberton Township home at the average assessed value of $165,893 pays about $709 more a year; in Pemberton Borough, about $679.
The state says Pemberton taxes below what it should
The state's adequacy budget for the district is $95,380,808 and its local fair share $33,560,070. The district was $7,250,080 below adequacy before this budget and $512,796 below after it.
The board's own record is not publicly retrievable here
Twenty-one board meetings fell in the year to 30 September 2026. Their agendas and minutes exist only on the district's BoardDocs portal, which refuses automated requests, so this page relies on the superintendent's video bulletins and the district's budget and compliance filings instead.
The absence of a retrievable meeting record is not evidence of secrecy: Pemberton publishes an unusually frank set of video bulletins, posts its budget in plain language, and its 2024-25 audit was clean with all three of the prior year's findings corrected. Every one of its nine schools has been named a State and National School of Character and a Purple Star school for its work with military families.
What is on the public record for Pemberton Township
Total 2026-27 spending, all fundsverified
$135,886,516
Up from $127,515,519 revised for 2025-26, an increase of about $8.4 million.
Local tax levy for 2026-27verified
$33,047,274
Up $6,819,279 from $26,227,995, about 26%. The same filing's per-municipality table sums to $29,829,353, which does not reconcile with this total.
State and federal aid for 2026-27verified
$76,703,402
Up a little over $2 million. Includes $61,820,738 of equalisation aid; federal impact aid fell $137,198 while the district waits on legislation setting future amounts.
Budgetary comparative cost per pupilverified
27,699 $ per student
New Jersey's standard comparative measure, up from $20,623 in 2023-24. Compare only with other New Jersey districts' figures in the same format.
Students on roll, October 2026 estimateverified
4,193 students
Down slightly from 4,197 in October 2025 and 4,265 in October 2024, while special education enrolment rises from 740 to 773.
Students chronically absent, 2023-24verified
23.2%
Against a statewide average of 14.9%. The district missed the state target in each of the last three reported years, though the rate has fallen from 30.1% in 2021-22.
Four-year graduation rate, class of 2024verified
93.4%
Above the statewide 91.1% but down from 96.3% for the class of 2022. The five-year rate for the class of 2023 was 97.0%.
High school phone infractions, first marking periodverified
150 infractions
Down from 519 in the same period of 2024-25, against about 1,500 for the whole of that year, after phones were locked in pouches from September 2025.
Water outlets above the lead action levelverified
11 of 249 samples
Highest readings 62.9 and 52.3 parts per billion at the high school and 61.32 at the Busansky library sink, against a 15 ppb action level. All were signed for handwashing only with fixtures marked for replacement.
Capital reserve balance at 30 June 2025verified
$8,572,234
With $3,160,682 in maintenance reserve, $514,110 in emergency reserve and an $11,688,430 impact aid reserve. The general fund also carried a $2,564,668 unassigned deficit.
Board meetings in the year with no agenda or minutes on this pagecontext
21 of 22 meetings
A proxied read of the district's BoardDocs meeting list confirms 21 board meetings between 8 October 2025 and 24 September 2026, out of 79 in its whole archive. Only the 9 September 2026 mini retreat has its agenda and minutes on the district's own website, which is why it is the only meeting reported here.
Major projects
Rebuilding Fort Dix Elementary with federal money
Federally funded; new roof completed summer 2026
The district received $19,639,964 of federal funding to renovate Fort Dix Elementary School on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The business administrator told the community the work is fully federally funded and that without it the cost would have fallen on the district's own budget and capital reserve. A new roof went on over the summer of 2026.
Next: The rest of the renovation programme, whose schedule the district has not published
Federal award of $19,639,964 reported to the community in the budget presentation
New roof at Fort Dix Elementary reported complete
Funding
Federal funding for schools on military installations
$19,639,964, outside the district's own 2026-27 budget.
Fire alarms, heating and floors across seven buildings
$2 million inside the 2026-27 operating budget
The 2026-27 budget carries just over $2 million of building work: heating and cooling for the Newcomb Middle School library and at Helen Fort Middle School, a fire alarm in the Stackhouse attic, a fire alarm at the Brotherhood administration building, first-floor flooring at the high school, district exhaust fans and renovation of the co-op building. Work completed over the summer of 2026 included heating and cooling in 15 Newcomb classrooms and part of the high school first floor.
Next: The remaining fire alarm and heating work in the 2026-27 list
Project list presented with the tentative budget
Newcomb classroom heating and cooling and high school flooring reported complete
Funding
Operating budget, not borrowing
A little over $2,000,000 for 2026-27.
A new reading programme against a stubborn attendance problem
Amplify CKLA in classrooms from September 2026
Pemberton ties its two biggest academic problems together. Chronic absenteeism was 23.2% in 2023-24 against a state average of 14.9%, missing the state target for a third year, and the superintendent has made attendance a headline priority in successive bulletins on the grounds that attendance drives whether children read at grade level. From September 2026 the kindergarten-to-grade-five English curriculum is Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts, combining explicit phonics with knowledge-building content. The same budget cut four elementary teaching posts.
Next: The 2024-25 and 2025-26 absenteeism rates, and the first state test results under the new curriculum
Superintendent devotes a bulletin to chronic absenteeism
District reports the absenteeism rate continuing to fall
Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts announced for grades K-5
Funding
Operating budget
No separate cost for the curriculum adoption is published.
A phone-free school day, school by school
Pouches at the high school since September 2025; stricter enforcement everywhere from September 2026
After about two months of school leadership discussion, Pemberton Township High School began locking every student's phone in an individual Yondr pouch in the first week of September 2025. Three months in, phone infractions had fallen from 519 to 150 for the same marking period and bullying reports were down. For 2026-27 the superintendent said the no-phone rule would be enforced more strictly across all nine schools in line with state law. The district's published Policy 5516 has not been rewritten to match.
Next: Whether the pouch approach extends to the two middle schools, and whether the written policy is updated
Pouches distributed to all high school students in the first week of school
Principal reports infractions down from 519 to 150 and bullying reports down
Students describe the change seven months in
Stricter districtwide enforcement announced for 2026-27
Funding
Operating budget
The cost of the pouch programme has not been published.
Getting lead out of the school taps
Eleven outlets remediated; one school's reporting violation closed out
Testing across all nine schools found 11 of 249 samples above the 15 parts-per-billion lead action level, including a high school classroom sink at 62.9 and the Busansky library sink at 61.32. Each was signed for handwashing only with the fixture marked for replacement and retesting. Separately, Marcus Newcomb Middle School, which is its own public water system, violated a state reporting requirement by filing its corrosion-control and source-water treatment plan about six weeks after the 31 March 2025 deadline. Retests on 23 April 2026 at Newcomb, Helen Fort and the Early Childhood Center all came back below the action level.
Next: Confirmation that the eleven replaced fixtures passed their retests, which the collected record does not yet contain
Deadline missed for Newcomb's corrosion control and source water treatment recommendations
Treatment recommendations filed with the state
Retesting at the three schools that run their own water systems
Families notified of the Newcomb reporting violation
All three systems report a 90th percentile below the action level
Funding
Operating budget and the facilities department; the district also names a township-recommended engineer for further work
No cost for the fixture replacement programme is published.
Local elections & school board members
Elections & votes
Board electionScheduled
November 3, 2026 Pemberton Township Board of Education election
Pemberton Township
Pemberton elects its nine-member board at the November general election to staggered three-year terms, so there is no separate public vote on the school budget. The published roster shows three three-year terms expiring in January 2027, held by board president Lionel Lee, vice president Sheri Lowery and Lori Sheridan, plus a one-year term expiring January 2027 held by Cecil Mammah, who joined in 2026 - the shape of a seat filled for the balance of an unexpired term.
This overview is built from what Pemberton publishes outside its board-meeting portal: the superintendent's nineteen dated Inside Outlook video bulletins for the year to 30 September 2026, transcribed; the agenda and minutes of the one board meeting posted on the district's own site; the 2026-2027 and 2025-2026 user-friendly budgets and the advertised budget notice; the audited financial report for the year ended 30 June 2025; the state's 2023-24 school performance report; eighteen lead-in-drinking-water notices and result tables; the board's protocols; and policies 5516 and 2365.
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