Property tax bills could increase by about $80 per year in Penn-Trafford School District following preliminary budget approval by a divided school board this week.
But the tax hike would still not be enough to cover the more than $400,000 deficit in the district’s 2025-26 budget, business manager Brett Lago said.
The board voted 5-4 to approve a 93.75 mill tax levy in Westmoreland County — a 3-mill increase over the current tax rate of 90.75 mills. This would support the district’s nearly $70 million spending plan for 2025-26.
Board members Scott Koscho, Dallas Leonard, Jim Matarazzo, Rich Niemiec and Nick Petrucci supported the tax increase. Toni Ising, Bryan Kline, Philip Kochasic and Martin Stovar opposed.
Superintendent Matthew Harris initially sought a 4-mill increase to keep up with rising costs without dipping into district savings.
“Penn-Trafford has always finished in the top 4% of the state (in state testing) the last 10 years,” Harris said. “We perform strong academically, and we are always one of the lowest cost per pupil in spending.
“I have never asked for a large mill increase prior. I’ve been here 17 years, 12 as your superintendent doing this budget. … If you do not raise at least 4 mills, I think we’re not only going to lose a lot of our items this year, we are going to have trouble going forward.”
Harris requested a 3-mill increase in the 2024-25 budget. The board approved a 1-mill tax hike and dipped into the district’s savings to cover an $800,000 budget deficit.
A 3-mill increase is a step in the right direction, Harris said. But the district still would need to cut its tutors and two student learning assistant positions to close the $426,600 budget gap. The district’s tutors — some of whom work part time — account for about five full-time employees, Harris said.
One mill brings the district $314,000 in Westmoreland County and about $326,500 in Allegheny County.
With the tax hike, the average tax bill would be $2,781 for Westmoreland residents and $950 for Allegheny residents.
The district’s average assessed value for Westmoreland homeowners is $28,000. It is $66,055 in Allegheny County, where only 51 properties are registered in the district.
‘Dangerous territory’
Penn-Trafford’s fund balance has about $4 million remaining — about half of the savings the district had in the account in 2020, Lago said. District savings have been used to balance the budget, purchase a new administration building and replace the roof of one of the school buildings, he said.
“That’s dangerous territory,” Harris said, “so I wanted to make sure we no longer use the fund balance for recurring expenses. And we didn’t want to make further cuts than we needed to.”
The district has chosen this year to save money by not replacing three teachers and a few support staff positions. Funding also was pulled from the district’s transportation, security, athletics and buildings and grounds budgets, Harris said. He estimates an average of $75,000 was pulled from each of those categories.
Kochasic encouraged the four dissenting board members to weigh in on what budget cuts should be made to close the budget deficit.
“Some hard decisions are going to have to be made, affecting overall scores and everything else in the building,” Kochasic said. “So please be vocal next week or in June on what actually is going to be cut.”
Expenses on the rise
The district’s 2025-26 expenses are about 2% higher than this school year’s $68.5 million budget.
Salaries and benefits, which make up about 80% of the budget, continue to rise, Lago said. Health care costs alone have increased 9%, costing the district an additional $600,000 per year.
Penn-Trafford also created a new administrative position in March to support student needs. The salary is $75,000, Harris said.
The funding the district will receive from the state in the 2025-26 school year is estimated to increase by 0.5%, Lago said, noting this is the lowest increase in recent years.
State funding accounts for 44% of the district’s revenue, Lago said. Less than 1% comes from the federal government, and the remaining 55% comes from local sources.
“There’s no way for us to bridge that gap between the revenues and expenditures without raising it locally,” Lago said.