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Peters Township adopts school budget with tax increase

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Peters Township School Board voted unanimously Monday night to adopt the district’s 2018-19 general fund budget in the amount of $65.85 million, with a corresponding real estate tax rate of 13.50 mills.

The new rate represents a .31-mill increase over the previous year, with the impact on property owners an extra $31 per $100,000 of assessed value. The increase matches the upper limit assigned to the district for the coming year under state Act 1 of 2006.

To finance the $95 million construction of a new high school, the district plans to implement a total increase of 1.57 mills spread out over five years. Each mill brings in about $3 million for the district, contributing to the $49-plus in revenues from local sources, or some 75 percent of the total.

The district anticipates revenues from state and federal sources to remain flat or decrease while it faces rising expenses in contracted staffing costs, along with its ever-growing annual contribution to the underfunded Public School Employees Retirement System.

To help meet the latter obligation, the school board voted to assign $4.5 million of the district’s surplus fund to PSERS contributions, along with another $4 million toward future debt service. The remaining fund balance is about $2.31 million.

Also at the meeting, the board approved the hiring of Jennifer Carfano as new assistant principal at Bower Hill Elementary School. She served as an instructional support teacher and reading specialist at the school for the past three years.

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