Laurel board juggles budget figures
The Laurel Highlands School District budget for the upcoming 2002-2003 fiscal year remains sketchy, but property owners can expect at least a 2-mill tax hike. The board has to raise taxes by that much to cover the payback on a bond issue meant to handle leftover debts from the 2001-2002 fiscal year, which ends June 30.
“We’re committed to 2 mills for the bond issue and we’re still looking to make cuts,” director Tom Vernon, who heads the school board’s finance committee, said at a work session Tuesday.
A resolution to float the $2.97 million bond issue is on the agenda for tonight’s regular business meeting.
The school district got permission from the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas to issue the bonds to cover a list of added expenses and lost income that was said to be unforeseen.
Representatives of the district’s bond counsel and investment banker are expected to be on hand tonight for the resolution.
The school board last month adopted a tentative $31.8 million spending plan.
Superintendent Dr. Ronald Sheba said about $500,000, including the proposed purchase of French and Spanish textbooks for the high school, has since been cut.
Board members talked Tuesday about whether they may be able to take a final budget vote at tonight’s regular business meeting, saying they want more of the expenses trimmed and still do not know how much subsidy the district will receive from the state. They have a finance committee meeting set for tonight before the business meeting.
Vernon outlined anticipated revenue sources that include about $15.5 million from the state as proposed with a 1-percent increase over the 2001-2002 allocation.
The 1-percent increase was Gov. Mark Schweiker’s proposal, while some lawmakers have predicted a 2- to 3-percent hike by the time the state passes the final budget. The new fiscal year starts July 1 for the state as well as the school districts.
Sheba said a 1-percent raise is worth about $100,000 more to the district, so each additional percentage hike would raise revenue by that much.
Otherwise, Vernon quoted $11.4 million in local revenue, although district officials anticipate at least an added $171,000 to the real estate income. He noted federal revenue at $1.2 million and other revenue at about $100,000.
There was no mention of how much, if any, they could raise taxes to balance the budget, but 1 mill brings in about $180,000 in revenue and the current real estate tax rate is 46.3 mills.
Vernon said the district would lay off no teachers to balance the budget. Director Angelo Giachetti added that no service employees would be laid off.
They made no comments about the administrators. They had listed realignment of the administrative staff as an item for an executive session. They had also listed for the executive session the consideration of a new high school principal and selection of an office coordinator.
In case they do not adopt a final budget tonight, the directors discussed when they might meet again and even considered early morning or late night times in the next few days. Sheba gave them a last possible moment, saying they have to have a budget in place by next Wednesday morning to cover the payroll.
Vernon had also commented that the school district has to make the effort to collect delinquent taxes, especially the mercantile tax. He said the board may need to hire an outside attorney to help collect that money.
A loss of $645,543 from the mercantile tax was among the items listed for the court when district officials asked for the bond issue to cover unfunded debt.
Among other items, the school board discussed raising the money that comes in from student parking fees.
The cost stands at $30 a year, but the board is considering raising that amount to $1 a day, or a total of $180 for the whole school year. The amount raised for parking at the high school was about $6,000 in this last school year, and the increase would add about $30,000.
The board also will vote whether to host a visit by the Colorado-based Group Workcamps Foundation program next summer.
Bill Long of the redevelopment authority in Uniontown and Jim Stark of the Fayette County Community Action Agency told the board they are working to bring the Group Workcamps program to town next summer and would like to house those involved at a Laurel Highlands school.
The program would involve 300 to 400 ninth- to 12th-graders from the area and elsewhere who would spend a week in Uniontown and South Union and North Union townships to work on maintenance projects at local houses. Long said they could make improvements like exterior painting to as many as 70 to 80 houses.
Long and Stark said they would raise the funds needed to bring the program the area. They said there would be no cost to the school district.