Trinity budget includes 5.5-mill tax increase
Trinity Area School Board adopted a final 2015-16 budget Thursday that includes a 5.5-mill real estate tax increase.
The $49.4 million spending plan was approved unanimously.
The millage increase is primarily because of mandated expenses the school district has no control over, according to director of fiscal services David Roussos, and bumps the tax rate to 113 mills.
The budget includes an operating surplus of $3,011.
“We ended up in the black. It’s not much in the black, but we’re in the black,” said director Frances Eates. “And we worked hard to get there.”
The biggest financial problem for the district is employer retirement contributions.
If it weren’t for that expense, Trinity Area School District would be spending approximately $700,000 less in 2015-16 than it did in 2008-09, said Roussos, who presented a review of the district’s millage rate over the past 10 years.
But the school district is contributing a state-mandated $5.5 million to the Pennsylvania State Employee Retirement System (PSERS) in 2015-16 (a 25.84 percent contribution rate), up from $923,952 in 2008-09 (a 4.76 percent contribution rate).
The school district received subsidy revenue from the state to cover about half of the $4.6 million increase in retirement expenses. The rest, $2.2 million, is the equivalent of 10.6 mills.
“Put retirement aside, and the district has done a very good job of managing those other expenditures,” said Roussos. “When we look at the millage rate in 08-09 and look at the millage now, if we take out the 10.6 mills for extra retirement, we have a millage rate pretty much or slightly below where we were at that historic low level. The challenges we’re looking at in this district, and all districts, is we’re facing a huge burden in these increases in the retirement contribution. This is a singularly unprecedented burden that we’ve got to deal with. Without that, things would be so much better here and everywhere else.”
In other business, the school board unanimously accepted the resignation of athletic director Bobby Jones, who was hired as Trinity’s athletic director July 30, 2010, was on leave since September. His resignation is effective May 15. John Digon, the district’s technology coordinator, served as interim athletic director.
The board approved a motion to post and advertise the position of director of athletics/activities.
Also Thursday, the board recognized Trinity Teacher of the Year, middle school math teacher Brenda Kovacicek; Teachers of Distinction, high school English teacher Rebecca Booher and Trinity South kindergarten teacher Sherie Ward; and state Teacher of the Year finalist Sherry Knight, an art teacher.