Shaler Area School District proposed final budget has no tax increase

Shaler Area School District’s real estate tax rate will remain at 23.5319 mills if the proposed final budget for 2022-23 is adopted prior to the June 30 deadline.

The proposed spending plan, which received school board approval May 11, calls for $6.87 million of the district’s fund balance to be used so that revenues meet a projected $96,066.348 in expenditures. The total represents a $3,101,365 increase over expenditures for 2021-22.

The largest line-item increase is for regular instruction, which is estimated to increase by $2,926,878 compared with the current year.

Superintendent Sean Aiken said via email that district officials understand the hardships experienced by local property owners in recent years, and the “school district is not immune to the challenges of rising costs for goods and services, and supply chain issues.”

Aiken said that the school board, staff and administration worked hard to identify cost savings and looked at all expenditures “without affecting the quality of education or health and safety of district facilities.”

The cost of some of the proposed projects will be offset by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, received through federal stimulus programs that help public schools finance extra support for students, teachers and health-related building improvements during the covid-19 pandemic.

To date, the district has spent and allocated $4.6 million of the funds to address learning loss and instruction through Extended School Year and summer programs, a social worker, a school counselor and behavior specialist services, 1:1 technology and classroom projectors, professional development, HVAC improvements and personal protective equipment.

In 2022-23, ESSER funds are slated to be used to address special education learning loss, support the Project ACE 1:1 iPad initiative, provide professional development, enhance HVAC systems in the high school athletic areas, continue to install projectors in classrooms, continue to purchase necessary PPE and to continue covid-19 mitigation efforts.

Additionally, the coming year’s budget will provide funding for the addition of an English as a Second Language/Academic Support teacher at Shaler Area Middle School, as well as all state and federal mandated programs, which include unfunded charter school tuition and underfunded special education and transportation expenditures. The budget also includes debt service for district construction projects.

The vote on the final budget is scheduled for June 15. The document is available for public viewing at sasd.k12.pa.us.