Tax hike from school district to be put forward

Administration will seek a 3.25% tax hike, agreed to by seven members of the board

In the May COW meeting, the Exeter Township School Board agreed to send a proposed final budget containing a tax hike of 3.25% to the voting meeting later this month.

Spending next year will be roughly $85.6 million, with revenue of $85.8 million. The tax hike will generate a surplus of almost $168,000. The 3.25% hike would raise taxes for the average house in Exeter by $123.96, or $10.33 per month. The average assessment of a house in Exeter is about $110,000.

Superintendent Dr. Christy Haller gave the budget update, and informed the board of her travels to Harrisburg last week to meet with legislators. In explaining the budget she said, “It’s a little bit over on the plus side, and this is assuming that (Business Manager) Brian (Feick) is correct with the level of funding that we're going to be receiving from the state. I did have an opportunity to go to the Capitol on Tuesday of last week. Brian was there the previous week. The state legislators were very kind and receptive to our conversations. But they've made it clear to us both Republicans and Democrats alike, that while there is an acknowledgment of a surplus at the state level that they are not looking to really deplete that surplus because they believe that that also would be irresponsible. So while Governor Shapiro's budget gives all school districts a much needed raise, it's not enough for us to not raise taxes.

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Haller explained the funding formula used for the budget, and the split of revenue sources. The funding scheme is that 67% comes from local taxpayers, 32% comes from the state, and 1% comes from the federal government.

She also gave the split of spending, explaining that 73% of expenditures are on salaries and benefits.

The school board will vote to adopt the proposed final budget at the May 21st meeting. The budget must be available for public inspection for twenty days. The board will vote on the final budget at its June 12th meeting.

A straw poll of the board was conducted to the “level of comfort” with a 3.25% tax hike, and the poll was 7-1. Member Dr. Andrea Battler stated a clear “no” to such a hike, and John Fidler waveringly gave a “reluctant” yes.

.In other business, the board took a straw poll to form an ad hoc committee to study the use of solar energy for the district. That vote was 6-2, with member Dr. Ann Hearing not in attendance. Finance and Audit Committee Chair Tim Morgan said, “We've looked into this before, it is a monumental amount of time on the board and the administration to do this and to access information. We thought that it might be better as we start to look into this not only to look into the solar but to look into, you know, what the what the grants are, where we're at with grants, what our confidence is that if we went forward with this, we would get a grant. We would use an ad hoc committee to start to detail that information out.” Morgan voted no to the committee, board president Jason Mell was a “reluctant yes” explaining, “However, my issue still is with I really don't want to dig in any deeper until we know that the House bill is going to actually pass. So I am a yes but I am still very reluctant to spend a lot of time on this until later in the year.” He refers to a solar subsidy bill that is in the PA State House. Mell said later that any movement on the bill isn’t anticipated to be until September, hence his reticence to rush. Battler said, “Currently, I think it's a waste of time and I'm a ‘no’.” Morgan then volunteered to chair the committee.

Haller offered, “As we mentioned at one of the board meetings previously, we are going to be meeting with Devopar about scheduling and we have been in contact with them. They might be able to also act as a consultant on behalf of the board regarding just giving some guidance on solar and what does that look like?” Both Morgan and Mell shot down any talk of consultants, with Morgan saying, “I don't know that it's the right time to look into a consultant when we're not even at the point where we know that we want to move forward with it. That would be my own personal thought. And I think we need information. I think if we're at the point where we want to take next steps, and we want to make sure that the steps we're taking are in the best interest of the taxpayers in the district. But for right now, I think that it's best to just gather information to see. I think that Mr. Mell’s point is that we need to make sure that we have a confidence level that the way that the grants and the funding are gonna go that it would even happen.”

The board got information that school lunch prices would go up ten cents, in keeping with a federal government formula that forces this consideration. They also agreed to a renewal of a contract with the Fox Rothschild law firm to continue services rendered. The Examiner errantly reported before that it was a new contract. The district retains them to handle certain personnel functions.

All of these items and more will be voted on in the May voting meeting on the 21st.