May 15, 2002 By Kris Schiffbauer 3 min read

Uniontown Area School Board is about $1 million short of balancing the 2002-2003 budget without a tax hike. At a special meeting Tuesday, the board adopted a tentative $30.9 million budget.

“I stress the tentative budget we’re going to pass tonight is only a tentative budget. This is far from being a final form of the budget,” said director William Rittenhouse Jr., who heads the board’s finance committee.

Rittenhouse said changes can be made until final adoption, and he asked that board members come forth with suggestions. They have until the end of June to pass a final budget, but a vote is expected at the June 17 business meeting.

He noted that about $589,000 was cut from expenses before the Tuesday meeting.

Taking into consideration that 1 mill in property taxes would bring in about $150,000 in revenue, the deficit in the tentative budget is worth 6.72 mills.

The school board raised taxes last year by 1.5 mills, leaving the current rate at 50.15 mills.

The board discussed the uncertainty of the state’s share in basic education and special education subsidy. Director Tammy Boyle said the state is not expected to come out with a final budget until the end of June.

Gov. Mark Schweiker’s proposed budget contains about a 1-percent increase in basic education and about a 1.5- percent increase in special education funding for all school districts. School officials and organizations have asked for more. Officials across the state have speculated about whether the figures will be increased in the final budget, and several proposals for funding plans have been released.

Business manager Floyd Geho said one proposal calls for a 10-percent increase from the state to the school districts and a corresponding 5 percent cut in the local property taxes. Geho said there was a concern about how the school district would respond to a new funding proposal if the tax rate were already approved with the final budget.

Solicitor Michael Brungo said the school board cannot change the millage rate once it is set, unless some special legislation is passed.

Rittenhouse cautioned that the school board must prepare the budget based on the information they have and not count on a “maybe” or “what if” possibility of more money from the state.

“At this point, we don’t know what to expect from the state, so we are going from what we know,” he said afterward.

The vote was 7-2 for adoption of the tentative budget, with directors Susan Clay and Nancy Herring voting no.

The special meeting was combined with the regularly scheduled work session.

Among the items considered, the school board discussed voting at the business meeting Monday on proceeding with stadium renovations that could be done in phases. The project includes a new concession stand.

The board also considered hosting an Intermediate Unit 1 Web site on the school district’s Internet equipment for a “reasonable hosting fee.” The Web site would feature assessment resources for teachers from throughout the IU 1 that they could use in their classrooms.