The Pottsville Area school board has managed to hold the line on taxes for a decade.
On Wednesday, school board President John F. Boran wasn’t sure the tradition would continue in school year 2016-17.
“We don’t know,” Boran said while he and members of the board reviewed the proposed 2016-17 school year budgets for the districts departments during a four-hour public Finance Committee Meeting at the Howard S. Fernsler Academic Center.
“It depends on the state,” board Member William R. Davidson, said referring to the struggle legislatures are engaged in regarding the distribution of state subsidy with House Bill 1589, the fiscal code.
On Dec. 2, the school board voted not to pursue a weighty tax increase for 2016-17 school year.
“It is recommended that the board adopt a resolution pursuant to Section 311(d)(1) of the Special Session Act 1 of 2006 indicating that the Pottsville Area School District will not increase any school district tax for the 2016-17 school year at a rate that exceeds the index as calculated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education,” Boran said at the Dec. 2 meeting.
That index is 3.4 percent of the district’s current millage rate, according to Stephen C. Curran, the district’s business manager.
The district’s current millage is 34 mills. So the school board could increase its millage to 35.15 in the 2016-17 budget if necessary, Curran said.
In January, the certified public accountant who conducted the 2014-15 audit for the school district, Richard W. Pitcavage of Jones & Co., Pottsville, recommended that its school board consider a tax increase.
The school board will discuss its 2016-17 budget at its next work session, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. April 20, which is followed by the board’s regular public meeting at 7 p.m.
The school board will adopt its tentative 2016-17 budget on May 11, Curran said, but a time for that special board meeting was not determined Wednesday night.
The school board will then adopt its 2016-17 budget on June 15, either at its 5:30 p.m. work session or its 7 p.m. board meeting.
If the school board decides to impose a millage rate higher than 35.15, it will make that decision at its June 15 meeting.
“Then we’ll have to file for an exception with the state Department of Education,” Curran said.
During a four-hour work session Wednesday night, the school board reviewed the budgets for Pottsville Area’s numerous departments.
Those departments, their budgets for 2015-16 and their tentative 2016-17 budgets are: elementary, $178,010.42, $177,561.24; middle school, $194,331.07, $171,126.77; high school, $244,052.81, $236,712.96; special education department, $162,461.01, $227,354.37; technology, $761,938, $815,603; and buildings, grounds and transportation, $592,472; $469,265.52.
In June 2015, the school board approved its 2014-15 budget, a $43,972,595 spending plan that did not include a tax increase.
School board member Scott R. Thomas asked if Curran had a rough idea of what the tentative budget would be for 2015-16.
“We’ll get that next week, Scott,” Curran said.
In other matters, the school board is gearing up for a series of public hearings regarding Gillingham Charter School’s application for a second five-year charter.
On Dec. 2, the Pottsville Area school board rejected that application.
In accordance with the Public School Code of 1949, Article XVII-A, Charter Schools, Section 1729-A, subsection (c), the school district must hold a public hearing “concerning the revocation or non-renewal.”
On March 29, Pottsville Area Superintendent Jeffrey S. Zwiebel announced the dates of the eight hearings regarding Gillingham’s charter renewal application. They will be held April 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27 and May 3 in the auditorium of D.H.H. Lengel Middle School at 1541 Laurel Blvd., Pottsville.
All hearings will begin at 9:30 a.m. except the one scheduled for Tuesday which will begin at noon, according to a legal notice published April 3 in The Republican-Herald.
Following the hearings, according to the school code, the public will be given 30 days to provide written comments on the charter school to the school board.
“We have witness prep the next two days. So we’ll finalize who’s going when,” Pottsville Area Superintendent Jeffrey S. Zwiebel said at the end of Wednesday night’s work session.
“Who do we have as witnesses?” Davidson asked.
“We’ll review all that tomorrow. I can’t say at this point. And everything will come out in the testimony,” Zwiebel said.