Since 2016-17, annual spending in the Pennridge School District has increased by about $23.5 million. But during the same time, the property tax rate has remained steady.
How did that happen?
“It is always the goal of the board and the administration to construct a budget that efficiently uses resources so that a tax increase is unnecessary,” board president Dave Reiss said. “We have been fortunate enough to do precisely that thanks to the work of the staff, the administration, and the targeted policy choices that the board has made.”
Approved in June, the district’s $154.6 million budget shows a $5.1 million increase in spending (3.45%) but relies on organic projected revenue increases to keep the numbers balanced, including:
• $830,000 in real estate tax revenue due to growth;
• $1.4 million more in earned income tax revenue;
• $1.7 million more in interest earnings;
• $500,927 increase in basic education funding; and,
• $580,000 more in federal access funding.
The owner of a property assessed at the median district average of $31,640 will continue to pay $4,281 in school taxes.
Major additions to the budget include the expansion of a full-day kindergarten program; three special education teachers and six instructional assistants; and the expansion of the Career Pathway Program at Pennridge High School.
One number still to be decided: the cost of a settlement with the Pennridge Education Association, whose contract on behalf of professional staff expired at the end of June.
“We plan to design a budget that lives within the district’s existing means but there are market forces that sometimes will not allow that result,” said Reiss. “We have been fortunate in the last few years to be able to be taxpayer friendly but that is always balanced against programmatic needs and mostly unfunded mandates from the Commonwealth.”
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