Carbon Career and Technical Institute is not recommending an overall contribution increase to its five sending school districts in its 2021-22 budget.

CCTI Business Administrator Jeff Deutsch told Palmerton Area School District’s board of directors Tuesday night that an across-the-board increase would not come until it was operating a deficit.

“For 2019-20, we projected a $100,000 deficit, but we actually came out with a $92,000 surplus,” Deutsch said. “In 2018-19, we came lout $166,000 to the good so our budgets pretty closely reflect our actual expenditures. Until we start seeing a deficit, we won’t recommend an increase to the sending schools. This will make eight consecutive years we have not recommended an increase.”

Sending schools include Palmerton, Lehighton, Panther Valley, Weatherly and Jim Thorpe. While no overall increase is recommended, individual districts do see year-to-year fluctuations based on enrollment. Palmerton students make up about a quarter of CCTI’s 400-student population.

“Based on enrollment, Palmerton’s share would increase $30,000, but, halfway through this school year, we are not planning to bill the sending districts for $100,000, so in all likelihood Palmerton would see no increase, maybe even a couple thousand dollar decrease in 2021-22,” Deutsch said.

As it stands right now, CCTI’s 2021-22 budget calls for $8.9 million in expenditures, $6.3 million of which comes from the five sending districts. The remaining money comes from state subsidies or grants. The budget represents a 1.6% increase over the current year.

Deutsch said CCTI’s total fund balance is $3.6 million. Of that, $2.7 million is committed to various post-employment benefits, retirement items and offsetting the current year’s budget.