Lehighton projects $3.49M deficit

Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors narrowly passed a preliminary 2020-21 general fund budget Wednesday night, which calls for a $3.49 million deficit.

The spending plan, which district administrators said will likely be revised “numerous times” before final adoption in June, passed by a 5-4 vote.

Directors Wayne Wentz, Rita Spinelli, Larry Stern, Stephen Holland and Nathan Foeller voted in favor of the budget, while David Bradley, Joy Beers, Gail Maholick and Richard Beltz were opposed.

“This is a very preliminary budget because a lot of the key components are unknown at this time,” business administrator Patricia Denicola told the board. “They include state revenue, professional staff salaries and special education costs, to name a few.”

Lehighton is currently negotiating a contract with its teachers. The current contract was approved in November 2015 and runs through Aug. 31, 2020.

Denicola said Lehighton’s budget will be discussed at each finance committee meeting leading up until June with multiple opportunities for revision.

Before the approval, Bradley lobbied his colleagues to table the budget vote.

“I think we should postpone this so we have time to review it with fidelity,” Bradley said. “We only got the budget at 2 p.m. today. This district is spending more than you take in year after year and you’re going bankrupt.”

Bradley took issue with the fact that Lehighton’s business office, and not board members themselves, drafted the budget.

“The budget is our responsibility,” he told his fellow board members. “We do not have authority to let them do it for us.”

Beers backed Bradley’s comments, saying she didn’t feel the board had enough input and oversight.

“In past boards I have been a part of, members collectively make a decision on what things money will be spent on and then create an outline of what the budget will be before the business administrator puts together the financial document,” Beers said.

Denicola has said she strives to budget using year-end actuals to cut down on historical overruns.

Before Denicola started in the district last March, Lehighton budgeted for $40.69 million in expenditures for 2018-19, but actually spent $43.9 million. In 2017-18, it budgeted $40.99 million and spent $42.39 million. In 2016-17, it budgeted $39.17 million and spent $41.37 million. In 2015-16, it budgeted $38.65 million and spent $44.01 million.

“In those years, we were never alerted we were running in a deficit,” Stern said. “This budget number uses actuals versus the fictitious $40 million budgets presented in past. We can sit here and lie to each other and make things up. We all understand we have an issue and need to try to work together to find a solution to the issues.”

Lehighton’s 2019-20 budget called for revenues of $41,361,426, compared to expenses of $43,894,495.

Revenues for the preliminary 2020-21 plan are projected at $40,924,886, with expenditures at $44,416,546.

Lehighton’s Act 1 index for 2020-21 is 3.6%, meaning the district can’t raise taxes more than that without seeking exceptions from the state.