EMMAUS, Pa. — With planned expansions in staffing and facilities, East Penn School Board on Monday gave initial approval to a 2024-25 budget that would raise property tax 5% — but did so begrudgingly.
Current proposals would raise taxes by 5%, increasing the rate from 20.17 mills to 21.1785 mills.
That's the largest increase proposed in the past decade, according to school budget documentation.
That means the owner of a property with a value of $200,000 for tax purposes would pay $4,235.70 in property tax — an increase of $201.70 over this year.
That is in support of $2 million in proposals described in recent meetings that include psychologists, special needs staff, learning interventionists, advisors and other new faculty.
"The priorities and the needs are synonymous. This isn't just a wish list or 'oh, it would be nice to have.'"Superintendent Kristen Campbell
Many of the positions, staff say, were introduced in recent years through coronavirus pandemic relief funding, and the administration now wants to see them made permanent to support continued learning challenges seen after the pandemic.
Administrators said that if the staffing priorities are not adopted, taxes still would need to increase 3.2%.
Some board members, such as Michael Felegy, requested that the administration take another dive into the proposals and come back with another presentation on necessary priorities before voting on the final budget.
"See what actually those priorities are, get in there deep to see what we really need on academic excellence to understand," Felegy said.
"I'm not saying take all the priorities out, but my vision is to see this tax increase come down a little bit."
Board members Adam Smith and Jeffrey Jankowski agreed to bring the draft forward as a formality but wished to see those tax increases come down.
"I will be voting yes, but there's a long way to go," Smith said. "I would love to see us get to 4 percent."
Supportive, but acknowledge cost
Others cited the district's current needs and desire for competitiveness, and questioned whether a 5% hike would be enough.
Gabrielle Klotz argued that the average cost for residents would be doable, at under $20 a month for the average household for the full needed increase.
"I think it's hard to look at the list of priorities that the administration put before us and say 'No, we're not going to do those,' "Parkland School Board member Alisa Bowman
"I believe we will have a substantial return on our investment," Klotz said. "In that continuing the beneficial programs and adding resources for students will only help to keep East Penn a popular school district.
"We will be able to attract and retain the educators, families, businesses and overall keep our local community and economy healthy."
Others, still hesitant, argued the increases were needs, albeit costly.
"I think it's hard to look at the list of priorities that the administration put before us and say 'No, we're not going to do those,'" board member Alisa Bowman said.
"I don't think we can campaign that we want our students to succeed and compete with other districts, and bring up our test scores if we're not going to vote to fund what we need to do to actually make those test scores happen."
List already whittled down
Superintendent Kristen Campbell, speaking for the administration, said they are mindful of the impact of the increase on the community, but that the initial list of requested funding needs was "double what you see here."
It already was whittled down after a process working with others at the district, Campbell said.
"It's about being attentive to core programs, a tiered system of support that includes academics, but also certainly takes a look at behaviors, social-emotional learning, and mental health," she said.
"The priorities and the needs are synonymous. This isn't just a wish list or 'Oh, it would be nice to have.'"
All but Felegy voted to approve the preliminary budget in what was called a largely procedural vote, but not all were fully supportive.
The budget had no changes from the prior meeting, where the initially proposed increase of 5.95% was lowered to 5% in the budget.
