Northern Lehigh’s proposed budget calls for 1.22 percent increase

Residents who live in the Northern Lehigh School District will likely see a 1.22 percent increase in next year’s budget.

By a 7-2 vote, the school board on Monday adopted the proposed general fund final budget for the 2018-19 school year in the amount of $34,474,274.

Directors Robert Keegan Jr. and David Roberts voted against the spending plan.

Keegan said he voted against the budget primarily due to “senior citizens and how much they can afford,” and “watching our dollars as close as we can.”

Roberts said he believes the district should use its money to cover the difference until staff members retire, and that he doesn’t see the point of putting the taxpayers on the hook for everything.

Before the vote, Director Gale Husack questioned the increase of teacher positions.

Superintendent Matt Link said the moves are necessary to support the students in their learning environment.

Director Mathias Green said over the past few years, the board has not replaced positions.

“I’m glad to see we’re filling some of those positions,” Green said.

Husack said she was glad to see that as well, but that her concern is that the tax rate doesn’t continue to go up each year.

Link said they were looking at the schedules to see how the district can best utilize their times to meet the needs of the students for remediation and enrichment.

The preliminary budget is adopted with a 21.96 millage rate for Lehigh County and a 63.93 millage rate for Northampton County.

After the meeting, Sherri Molitoris, co-director of business affairs/human resources, said that would mean that based on the median assessed value of a home, residents of the district who live in Lehigh County would see an $89 increase in their property tax rates, while residents of the district who live in Northampton County would see a $97 increase.

Molitoris said the district would use $2.3 million from the district’s fund balance.

She said the primary driving factors behind the proposed budget increase include $4.1 million in Public School Employees Retirement System costs ($279,000 increase); $2.7 million for medical ($160,000 increase), as well as contractual matters and additional staffing.

Staffing

Link said additional staffing includes:

• Peters Elementary: One full-time regular education teacher and three paraprofessionals to address larger class sizes in the primary grades. The district wants to ensure all students’ needs are met, but most importantly to make sure the students are reading on grade level by the time they are in third grade.

• Slatington Elementary: Two paraprofessionals to support differentiated instruction in ways such as offering small group and one-to-one instruction and remediation for students that need additional support to close or prevent learning gaps.

• Northern Lehigh Middle School: Increase a half-time art teacher to a full-time position. This employee is also certified as a school librarian and will allow the district to offer more learning opportunities within the middle school library with an emphasis on STEAM activities. It includes an office paraprofessional to allow its Licensed Practical Nurse to fully function in the nurse capacity and not have to also cover the office. There will also be one additional paraprofessional with an emphasis on supporting students with special needs, as well as a math teacher position to be shared with the high school. This position will teach two courses at the middle school.

• Northern Lehigh High School: Increase of an additional math teacher to address requirements and improve course offerings; the addition of four cafeteria monitor positions for four hours per day, five days per week. These positions will assist with other general duties around the school and allow administration to remove teachers from being cafeteria monitors and instead offer additional courses/elective, work on curriculum writing, and assist in project-based assessment requirements.

In June, the board approved this year’s budget with no tax increase.

The $34,059,577 spending plan called for a 21.34 millage rate for Lehigh County and a 61.81 millage rate in Northampton County.

Based on the median assessed value of a home, residents of the district who live in Northampton County saw a $64 decrease in their property tax rates, while residents of the district who live in Lehigh County saw a $10 increase in their property tax rates.

Molitoris said the district offset a tax increase in this year’s spending plan through the use of its fund balance as the result of savings over the past few years.

The board is expected to grant final approval of the budget when it meets at 7:30 p.m. June 11.