PT Council, school board discuss issues
McMURRAY – One of the many issues discussed among members of Peters Township Council and the school board during their annual joint meeting Monday was taxes.
Why, asked Councilman David Ball, does Peters Township School District keep raising taxes just about every year and is applying for an exception from the state to exceed the maximum increase permitted by law this tax year, while the township rarely raises taxes?
The township operates on a budget that runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 annually, and the school district is required by law to adopt a budget that operates on a fiscal year. Currently, the township is working under a $18.6 million budget and the school district is operating on a more than $53 million budget.
If an exception to grant a millage increase above the 2.01 percent allowed by the state is approved, the current 102 mills could jump by about five additional mills. The township passed its budget in mid-December that did not include a tax increase.
The answer to the wide gap in budgets is somewhat complicated.
One reason for a higher tax rate for the school district is the cost of salaries and benefits for employees, another is to meet the mandates set by the state, mainly for special-needs students, and the third major reason is to fund the high cost of retirement contributions. Meeting the mandates for special education is about 10 percent of the entire annual budget, said Vincent Belczyk, district business manager.
The district must also provide space in the buildings on the chance that students enrolled in cybereducation decide to return to the district. Also, the district must pay the cyberschools tuition. Between 55 to 65 students attend cyber schools, with Sandy Gregg, board vice president, saying the district pays about $500,000 annually to cyberschools.
When Ball questioned why the district does not implement cost reductions, Jeannine French, district superintendent, responded that the most cost-effective way to lower expenses is to reduce staff. However, she said, the district is already one of the lowest districts when it comes to per-pupil cost ratio at $11,400 to $11,700 per school year, yet still ranks as one of the top 10 districts in the state.
School board member Jamison Hardy, who was sworn in for his first term in early December, said he, too, questioned expenditures. Now that he is a member of the board, he has learned the facts behind some of the expenditures and encouraged those who continue to question the way the board spends money to attend board meetings and to ask questions.
Michael Silvestri, township manager, updated the school board on the status of road projects that could impact the district’s buses. He said the Valley Brook Road project is expected to be completed in early September, and on how the township paved five miles of road last summer. “This winter has wrecked havoc on our roads,” Silvestri added, but he did not mention any salt shortages.