Gaming funds stave off tax increase in OJR budget

SOUTH COVENTRY, 28 May 2010 — The Owen J. Roberts School Board approved a proposed 2010-11 budget that would raise the millage rate by .67 mills, but, thanks to state gaming funds, it won't result in a tax increase for the average homeowner.

The $82,457,682 proposed spending package will be presented to the board for final approval at the June 21 board meeting.

The budget total represents a 4.17 percent increase over the 2009-10 $79.16 million budget, and it will require a tax hike of 2.6 percent. That equates to a $124 increase to the property tax bill of the average homeowner in the district with a house assessed at $185,400, according to district Business Administrator Jaclin Krumrine.

However, the district will receive $1,525,890 in state gaming funds to offset tax bills of each qualified homestead by $170. Therefore, the average homeowner will see a net decrease of $46.

When the board first approved a preliminary 2010-11 budget in February, the district was facing a possible $1.6 million shortfall and still looking at raising taxes by 2.9 percent — the maximum allowed the district under the state's Act 1 taxing index.

At a board meeting Monday, Krumrine said the board and administration had managed to trim $1.7 million from that original preliminary budget.

"Every department had cuts, including staffing," she said.

Nevertheless, the budget had to cover several large expenditures next year, the largest of which is the $1.2 million cost of opening the renovated middle school.

The middle school has been closed for two years, undergoing a complete overhaul. Throughout the renovation the district's seventh- and eighth-graders have been taught in a new ninth-grade wing of the high school, which opened in September 2008.

The support staff from the middle school was transferred to West Vincent Elementary School, which also opened in 2008.

The district must hire all new maintenance and support staff, and pay for all other costs associated with adding a new school to the district that increases the square-footage of the district by 25 percent, Krumrine said.

Another large expense in the 2010-11 budget is the mandated increase in the district's contribution to the Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS). OJR will contribute 8.22 percent to the system next year. That's a 72 percent increase over the 2009-10 rate, according to Krumrine.

All Pennsylvania school districts are being forced by the state to pay a much larger share of PESERS this year. That share is expected to rise sharply over the next several years. For 2012-13, OJR anticipates a 29.22 percent increase in its contribution to PESERS.

"I cannot stress enough the impact this will have on our district over the next several years," Krumrine said.

The district is also faced with declining tax revenues in property taxes, earned income taxes and real estate transfer taxes. About 79 percent of the budget is funded by local sources, primarily property taxes, Krumrine said.

Because the district expects the next few years to be similarly lean, Superintendent Joel T. DiBartolomeo worked with the board, administrators and community volunteers in April on a town hall meeting on the budget. They also released an online survey that, like the town hall meeting, was intended to help determine what the community feels is important to the district.

While data from the meeting and survey are still being compiled, board finance committee Chairman James Frees said the initial results indicate that people are, overall, happy with the district.

"The people in the community do believe this is a very good school district," Frees said.

DiBartolomeo noted that the survey, which tallied nearly 1,000 responses, showed that more than 70 percent of responders were very satisfied with education provided in the schools and the teachers.

"We learned a lot of information through the survey and we're going to use that in developing budgets for future years," Krumrine said.