The Whitehall-Coplay School Board approved the preliminary adoption of the budget for the 2016-17 school year at its meeting Monday night.

The preliminary budget is in the amount of $65,457,126 and is an increase of 5.75 percent over the prior year.

This preliminary budget balances revenues and projected expenditures with an anticipated increase to the current real estate tax rate of 1.3983 mills.

After the board approved the preliminary budget, with all members voting in favor except for Owen Eberhart Jr., who voted no, and Treasurer Arthur Taschler Jr., who was absent, Whitehall-Coplay School District Superintendent John Corby spoke of the budget.

“This is a preliminary budget,” he said. “It’s one of the most frustrating to prepare for 2016-17 because of the uncertainty in Harrisburg. We still don’t know what we are going to receive for the 2015-16 school year from Harrisburg.”

The board also approved to apply for Act 1 budget exceptions for the 2016-17 school year, but Corby said that is not a commitment.

“This does not mean commitment,” he said. “This allows more options for us for June. The Act 1 index keeps options open to prepare a balanced budget. These numbers are not the numbers you will be seeing in June. It all depends on what we receive for the 2015-16 school year and the 2016-17 school year.”

At the close of the meeting, board member William Leiner Jr. said, “I want to point out, in my experience, you do vote on preliminary budgets, but it’s more of a vote to move a process forward.”

When asked by The Press after the meeting about his vote against the preliminary budget, Eberhart said he had no comment.