Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors will decide in two weeks how it wants to fill a nearly $419,000 deficit when it votes on a proposed final 2022-23 operating budget.

During a budget workshop Tuesday night, Business Administrator Edward Rarick said revenues are currently projected at $44.58 million, while expenses are estimated to be $45 million.

“The board has three options on the table,” Rarick said. “It could increase taxes by 1 mill, which would cost an additional $4.66 per month for a taxpayer with an average property assessment. It could reduce some of the positions that have been included in the budget or reduce non-fixed expenditures such as supplies. Or it could utilize the district’s fund balance to cover that deficit.”

According to Rarick, 7,174 properties in Lehighton fall below the average assessed value, while 2,378 are above it.

“The average increase of 1 mill on the 7,174 properties is $2.04 per month.

Board President Joy Beers said she envisioned the district’s goal this budget season as one of keeping the status quo while Lehighton undergoes an administration transition.

“We have an interim superintendent and we’re trying to keep the boat sailing until we hire a new one, so this budget really keeps a lot of things the same,” Beers said. “The new superintendent will be tasked with creating a vision and analyzing the status quo so we can take a look at things like our curriculum and grants and what types of things we can do going forward.”

Lehighton’s unassigned fund balance stood at $4.4 million at the end of the 2021 school year.

Salaries, at $15.39 million, and benefits, at $13.31 million, make up a combined 63.92% of the district’s budget. Payments for outside charter schools, Lehighton’s internal charter program, Behavioral Health Associates, the Carbon County Intermediate Unit #21, and technical schools make up 14.6% of the budget. Most of those payments are classified under “other purchased services,” which is projected at $6.47 million for 2022-23.

One-time purchases through American Rescue Plan funds, totaling $525,000, include iPads, information technology switches and districtwide access points. American Rescue Plan revenue will continue into the 2024 fiscal year, at which time the district will need to make up the $1.93 million in revenue, $900,000 of which is a continuing expenditure.

The district’s contribution to the Public School Employees’ Retirement System is set to increase by 2%, a total of $401,000.

Staffing additions

The 2022-23 budget currently includes the addition of an elementary center music teacher, middle school reading specialist, high school math teacher and a 10-month middle school secretary.

Last month, Dr. Mark McGalla, principal of grades 3-5 in the Lehighton Area Elementary Center, said the building currently has just one music teacher for 971 students.

“We used to have two and we’re now at one so students are getting music once every eight days,” McGalla said. “Another music teacher would also allow us to prepare the students for concerts and get back to some of those events we haven’t been able to do.”

Middle School Principal Steve Ebbert said the school had a reading specialist who focused on helping students with their comprehension and other reading skills, but that is no longer the case.

“We had to combine reading with our English language arts so we were giving half a course of each,” Ebbert said. “By not having that position, it was really a double whammy because the ELA had to give up some of the normal curriculum they would teach, plus you’re not getting the full course load of reading.”

Lehighton High School once had seven math teachers but was asked by administration to give two of them to the middle school after one of its math teachers took a job with another district and the other retired.

“That left us with five math teachers and class sizes of 25-32 students in some of our neediest math sections,” High School Principal Sue Howland said.

The additional teacher, Howland said, could also allow for additional sections of courses such as financial algebra.

Rebate

Property owners approved through the Homestead/Farmstead Act will likely catch a bigger break this year, Rarick said. The state has allocated a higher percentage of gaming funds to go to that program, which gives a tax rebate to enrolled homeowners.

“The district’s allocation is about $1.5 million this year as opposed to $1.2 million last year,” Rarick said.