DUI Lawyers in Evesham, NJ

A house in Marlton that sold for $1.2 million tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in Evesham in the past week.

In total, 11 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $539,136, or $266 per square foot.

The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of April 28 even if the property may have been sold earlier.

10. $283K, single-family house at 304 Foxwood Lane

The property at 304 Foxwood Lane in Marlton has new owners. The price was $282,500. The house was built in 1984 and has a living area of 1,652 square feet. The price per square foot is $171. The deal was finalized on April 11.

9. $318K, condominium at 1807 Rabbit Run Road

A 1,045 square-foot condominium at 1807 Rabbit Run Road in Marlton has been sold. The transfer of ownership was settled in April and the total purchase price was $318,000, $304 per square foot. The condominium was built in 1994. The deal was finalized on April 9.

8. $335K, condominium at 2006 Rabbit Run Road

A sale has been finalized for a condominium at 2006 Rabbit Run Road in Marlton. The price was $335,000 and the new owners took over the condominium in April. The condo was built in 1994 and the living area totals 1,599 square feet. The price per square foot ended up at $210. The deal was finalized on April 8.

7. $445K, single-family home at 16 Tulip Court

The property at 16 Tulip Court in Marlton has new owners. The price was $445,000. The house was built in 1999 and has a living area of 1,532 square feet. The price per square foot is $290. The deal was finalized on April 8.

6. $540K, single-family residence at 5 Tomahawk Drive

The sale of the single family residence at 5 Tomahawk Drive in Marlton has been finalized. The price was $540,000, and the new owners took over the house in April. The house was built in 1964 and has a living area of 1,752 square feet. The price per square foot was $308. The deal was finalized on April 11.

5. $560K, single-family house at 25 Huxley Circle

The 1,930 square-foot detached house at 25 Huxley Circle, Marlton, has been sold. The transfer of ownership was settled in April and the total purchase price was $560,000, $290 per square foot. The house was built in 2003. The deal was finalized on April 11.

4. $570K, single-family home at 413 Liberty Lane

The sale of the single-family residence at 413 Liberty Lane, Marlton, has been finalized. The price was $570,000, and the new owners took over the house in April. The house was built in 1993 and has a living area of 2,935 square feet. The price per square foot was $194. The deal was finalized on April 8.

3. $700K, single-family residence at 231 Lakeshore Drive

The property at 231 Lakeshore Drive in Marlton has new owners. The price was $700,000. The house was built in 1973 and has a living area of 1,774 square feet. The price per square foot is $395. The deal was finalized on April 14.

2. $900K, single-family home at 2 Light Horse Court

The 3,296 square-foot single-family residence at 2 Light Horse Court, Marlton, has been sold. The transfer of ownership was settled in April and the total purchase price was $900,000, $273 per square foot. The house was built in 1993. The deal was finalized on April 9.

1. $1.2 million, single-family residence at 52 Wellesley Way

The sale of the single-family home at 52 Wellesley Way, Marlton, has been finalized. The price was $1,200,000, and the house changed hands in April. The house was built in 2018 and has a living area of 3,309 square feet. The price per square foot was $363. The deal was finalized on April 9.

Real Estate Newswire is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to generate analysis of data from Propmix, an aggregator of national real-estate data.

Homeowners in Evesham face a massive 25.4% increase in their school district property tax bills — $910 a year for the average $272,785 residential assessment — under a plan approved by the Evesham Township Board of Education at a special meeting on Tuesday.

Board members voted 6-3 to apply to a new state program that would allow its budget to reach "adequacy" by sharply increasing property taxes. School districts ordinarily are limited to a 2% cap on tax increases.

The property tax increase is not automatic and needs to get the blessing of the state. If approved by the state, the Evesham district would be able to raise about $14.9 million and restore many of the cuts in the 2025-26 school budget. The budget must be submitted by Monday.

Several board members said taking the one-year increase would put the financially troubled district on a path to adequate budgets in the next few years.

The board voted 6-3 to apply to the state to increase taxes by all of the amount permitted, resulting in a 25.4% tax increase. Some dissenting board members voted to apply for only some of the increase, which amounts to 15.4% and would raise annual taxes by $545.16 for a home with the average assessment.

Voting in favor of the full 25.4% increase were: Jarod Brown, Terri Butrymowicz, William Thompson, Kevin Peelman, David Bock and Aneesh Kanthan. The three board members voting to apply for an increase, but the lower 15.4% amount, were Aiden DeMarsey, Tracy Fox and Janis Knoll.

The new state initiative allows districts like Evesham that are deemed to have budgets "below adequacy" to apply to raise the tax levy to the amount that would allow them to reach adequacy, ETSD Superintendent Justin Smith explained at the meeting.

Smith said that $14,922,643, of which the state would provide about $710,000, is needed to bring ETSD up to adequacy, adding some of that funding would:

"How can anyone stand here in front of this opportunity and say that we are going to take less than adequate, less than average for our kids?" Smith asked. "The state is not going to save our district. The state is giving us this chance to save ourselves."

When asked for his perspective, Jonathan Yates, the ETSD business administrator, said: "I could certainly speak as a dad and say that I think these things are needed for the children in school. One thing that sticks out to me from a business administrator perspective is restoring fund balance (and) strengthening our long-term fiscal health."

Even with the potential influx of funding, the decision earlier this year to outsource the bus drivers employed by the district remains unchanged due to what Smith called budgetary savings and operational challenges spurred by two-thirds of the district's bus routes already being outsourced.

"With everything that is going on in this country right now on a federal level, economically, in good conscience, I cannot ask taxpayers to burden what the state should be providing at that much of an increase," said board member Fox, who voted to take only some of the tax increase.

But board member Peelman, who voted to take the full increase, said the plan would bring stability to the annual school budgeting process.

"We are doing everything in our power to take as much local control of our own destiny as we can, so that we can stop having a continual conversation year after year after year of trying to find out whose jobs are being saved, who has to go home at the end of the workday every day and worry that they are not going to be employed next year," Peelman said.

Facing a room full of protesting parents and students, the Evesham Township school board on Monday in a close decision voted 5-4 to pass the $85.7 million preliminary district budget that school officials said will eliminate 83 positions — 10% of the district staff — in elementary and middle schools and also cut back on transportation.

"Shame" and "disgusting" some in the audience shouted, with others leaving the meeting before it was completed.

"No combination of words...can be said that can take away the pain and the anger from where we are," Superintendent Justin Smith said at the meeting. He was heckled multiple times during the budget presentation.

The preliminary 2025-26 budget totals $85,663,476, which is $2.4 million or nearly 3% percent less than the current school year budget, according to Jonathan Yates, business administrator and school board secretary.

Yates said that annual school property taxes will increase $180.33 on a Township home assessed at the municipal average. He had neither the average assessment nor the percentage tax increase when asked after the meeting by 70and73.com.

During the meeting, Marisa DiTore, Evesham Township Education Association secretary, said that 478 of 494 staff members (97%) who participated in a vote said they had "no confidence" in Smith and wanted him to resign or take corrective action, which drew applause from the audience.

"The leadership of Dr. Smith has demonstrated a persistent lack of transparency and decision-making processes (and) failing to provide clear and timely communication," DiTore said. "Smith has systematically dismantled a once-thriving school district, leading to a decline in educational quality, staff morale and community trust."

Smith did not respond to the vote.

The increase in class sizes seemed to concern many of the parents, teachers and students who spoke out against the budget.

"Our teachers are the foundation of our school," said Natalie Rogers, a district seventh-grade student. "Listen to them when they say student grades will go down when they cram us like sardines into a classroom."

Parent Colleen Ellis told the board: "This budget is so short-sighted and the overcrowding that it will cause is so detrimental to our students. …If you continue with these increased classes, you are cheating kids with special learning needs out of their right to learn in the least-restrictive environment for them.”

Other members of the public spoke about what they called money-saving suggestions being ignored, and Smith said he would discuss some of those suggestions with the district liaison committee at its next meeting. Other commenters said that no administrators were cut from the budget and that Smith worked harder to establish full-day kindergarten than to save jobs. Smith did not respond to these allegations.

The five school board members who voted for the preliminary budget — David Bock, Aiden DeMarsey, Tracy Fox, Aneesh Kanthan and William Thompson — did not discuss their votes. Three of the four who voted against the preliminary budget did. Members voting against the budget were Jaron Brown, Terri Butrymowicz, Janis Knoll and Kevin Peelman.

"We received a brief summary on a couple of items from Dr. Smith on Thursday night, but it was in no way a full report on all that is up for decision," Butrymowicz said. "I will need more time and more information to give proper due diligence to these district-changing, life-altering decisions that the community trusts us to make."

Smith said some of the budget cuts announced earlier this year are still in effect. Cuts include eliminating all elementary school extracurriculars, increasing elementary school and middle school class sizes, establishing more walking routes to school, creating a sixth middle school class and eliminating the student enrichment program known as Team Time, outsourcing the transportation department and terminating health benefits for paraprofessionals with fewer than 20 years of service in the district.

For the time being, feel free to ignore some traffic lights on a busy highway corridor in South Jersey.

In fact, the New Jersey Department of Transportation is helping in that process.

It's keeping black wrappers on traffic lights that have been installed — but not activated — as part of a $152-million project to improve Route 70 in Evesham, Cherry Hill and Pennsauken.

The shrouded standards hang near traffic lights that they'll eventually replace. But until that happens, they're covered to prevent confusing motorists, according to a DOT statement, which noted that work must be done on the ground before the old lights can be removed.

"This work includes installing additional hardware, running cables, and configuring software," the statement said.

It added that the new lights will have upgraded "adaptive systems" to adjust their timing in response to traffic volume.

That's expected to improve traffic flow and reduce stops and backups, according to the DOT's project summary.

"Testing of the newly installed traffic signals has begun and will continue for the next several weeks," the statement said.

"Once installation is complete, the department will perform a complete system test to ensure that all signals are in constant communication," it added.

Many of the covers carry the name of Diehl Electric, the Hammonton firm that made the advanced signals. A company representative could not be reached for comment.

The new signals are to appear at 28 locations on an 8.8-mile stretch of Route 70 between Cooper Avenue in Evesham and Route 38 in Pennsauken.

The DOT said the traffic-signal project should be completed by the fall between Cooper Avenue in Evesham and Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill. A strip from Haddonfield Road to Route 38 is due for completion in winter 2026.

Among other changes, the project is to include the installation of new pedestrian countdown signals and pushbuttons at crosswalks.

Upgrades to five closed-circuit TV cameras and the installation of two "dynamic message signs" to alert drivers to new roadway incidents or congestion are also expected. Two existing signs are set to be replaced.

Workers will install additional lighting at signalized intersections and replace existing street lights with LED lighting fixtures, the project summary said.

The overall project, which includes extensive roadway and infrastructure work, is expected to continue until early 2027.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

A teachers' union in Burlington County said it no longer has confidence in its superintendent after the district proposed cutting nearly 10% of its staff next school year to reduce costs.

At a packed board of education meeting Monday night, the Evesham Township Education Association issued a rare vote of “no confidence” in Superintendent Justin Smith on behalf of nearly 500 teachers.

The announcement came after Smith presented next year’s preliminary $85.7 million district budget, which includes cutting 83 teaching and staff positions.

To save $4 million next school year, the district also plans to increase middle and elementary school class sizes and cut all elementary school extracurricular activities, according to the plan.

Health benefits for paraprofessionals will be eliminated and transportation will be outsourced to further reduce costs, according to the proposed budget.

In a close vote, board members passed the budget, but not without major dissent from the public. More than a dozen teachers, parents, staff members and students spoke at the meeting, raising concerns about the cuts.

Teachers called for the superintendent to resign or take appropriate measures to restore confidence, alleging he has been neither transparent nor timely in his decision-making.

“Dr. Smith has systematically dismantled a once-thriving school district, leading to a decline in educational quality, staff morale, and community trust,” a statement from the teachers' union said. “The administration has repeatedly failed to engage with key stakeholders, neglecting the principles of open governance and accountability.”

Evesham is among several school districts around the state making tough budget decisions this spring as the state legislature debated Murphy’s budget proposal.

On Tuesday, the Middletown School District in Monmouth County proposed plans to close two of its elementary schools to save costs in its $197 million budget for next year.

In Evesham, Carole Larsen, a paraprofessional who works with students with autism in the district, said at the meeting she was devastated when she learned her benefits would be cut.

“My benefits are very crucial to my husband and me,” Larsen said. “I’ve been with the district for 19 years, and I was the first name on the cut list.”

According to Smith, the district had to make the layoffs and cuts due to state funding constraints.

“Our district’s goal is charting the least horrible path in a horrendous situation” Smith said in a statement Wednesday. “This is not a result of fiscal mismanagement, but rather a direct consequence of the State-imposed funding constraints.”

“Our expenditures continue to rise due to inflation, mandated costs, and increasing special education and transportation needs, while our revenue growth remains artificially restricted by, among other factors, the State’s 6% cap on state aid increases this year, which is depriving our district of $1,307,912 in unallocated, uncapped state aid,” he added.

Smith also said at the meeting he plans to meet with the teachers' union about their vote of no confidence.

The Evesham Township School District serves about 4,500 students across its eight public schools.

Last month, after Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled his $12.1 billion school funding plan for fiscal year 2026, the New Jersey Department of Education released preliminary state aid figures for the state’s nearly 600 districts.

Evesham’s state aid is increasing by 6% for the next school year. But, the district has still lost over $7 million in aid since 2018, local officials said.

In 2017, Evesham was one of many districts considered “historically overfunded” when the state revised its school funding formula to address disparities in aid distribution, according to school officials.

New Jersey’s new school funding law gradually reduced funding for overfunded schools and increases it for underfunded ones. The goal is to achieve full fairness by 2025, though some districts argued the method as unfair.

In Evesham, the proposed cuts followed years of decreases in aid, along with rising costs, the financial burden of special education and transportation costs, and staff salary and benefit increases, according to its superintendent.

More than 87% of Evesham’s $85.7 million planned budget for next school year comes from local property taxes, which are set to increase to supplement the loss in aid, the board said.