May 23, 2007 By Rebekah Sungala 2 min read

Uniontown Area School Board approved a tentative $38 million budget for the 2007-2008 school year Monday that includes no tax increase. People who own property in the school district currently pay 13 mills in taxes.

At that rate, district residents pay $130 for every $10,000 in assessed value. A person whose property is valued at $50,000 would pay $650 in taxes.

The school board will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. June 21 in Room 123 at the high school to adopt the final $38,891,508 budget.

Copies of the proposed budget will be available before the meeting. The regular meeting scheduled for June 18 will be cancelled due to the special meeting.

As for other business, the school board unanimously agreed to pay to have a drug-sniffing dog trained to work in all of the district’s schools. The cost of training is not to exceed $4,000.

School police Chief Don Homer, who will handle the K-9, said the $4,000 would pay for the dog’s training and equipment. The school district already has two bomb-sniffing dogs handled by Homer.

In other matters, the school board agreed to install flashing lights near Menallen Elementary School in an attempt to slow vehicular traffic. The cost of the lights is not to exceed $10,000.

The school board also conducted the following business:

n Approved the continuation of the qualified service agreement between the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission and the Uniontown Area School District.

n Gave approval for Lafayette School, currently designated a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, be changed to two separate entities – a grade school grades kindergarten through five and a middle school grades six through eight, pending approval from the state Department of Education.