At the Jan. 9 Salisbury Township School District Operations Committee meeting, members of the committee discussed the preliminary recommendations for the 2017-2018 budget.

Board Secretary Robert Bruchak said there are several key components that are necessary expenditures which will create challenges for the school board. Salaries and health care costs are consistently the largest portion of the budget and expenses for transportation, special education, cyber and charter schools and the retirement fund continue to grow. Bruchak said transportation and expenditures for charter and cyber schools are roughly $1 million. Healthcare costs for the budget do not reflect an increase and have come in under budget, according to Bruchak.

Collected revenue for the district is fairly stagnant with little growth in the district. Global funds from payment in lieu of taxes from Lehigh Valley Hospital is calculated at $145,000, while the fund from the Individual with Disabilities Education Act is run through the Intermediate Unit.

The district’s contribution to Public Schools Employment Retirement System, the pension fund for employees in education, will increase. Bruchak said the multiplier the state uses to calculate the rate has increased from 2 percent to 2.5 percent. The retirement system will increase to 32.57 percent and “makes up one-third of the gap in the budget.”

The current millage for the township, reported by Bruchak, is 18.0516 and the ACT I index is 2.5 percent. Without exceptions, the board is allowed to multiply the current millage by the ACT I index percentage.

“In terms of revenue, the ACT I index would increase revenue by $581,000 in collected revenue by local taxpayers. The preliminary budget, without the contingencies worked in, is $37,321,000 and would require a millage rate of 19.27 to balance the budget,” Bruchak said.

Should the district be granted all possible exceptions for special education, it would be permitted to raise the millage to allow the township to collect an additional $1.2 million by an increase in taxes. The average household would realize an average increase of between $100 to $150 in taxes.

According to the figures presented with just a slight increase from the previous budget, with all exceptions, the district would still fall short from meeting the budget.

Because Pennsylvania does not approve its budget until June, there are “unresolved factors in the budget” as the amount of aid from the state is undetermined until after approval of the district’s budget.

The preliminary budget approval would occur in February, with a proposed final budget in May and a final budget approval June 30.

School Board President Frank Frankenfield expressed frustration over the state’s budget pitfalls.

“Every year it is the same thing; we can’t tell our taxpayers how much we are getting from the state and have to make assumptions because of their lack of inability to pass a budget,” Frankenfield said.

“We have to overtax our community because of what the state does. When are we not going to pass a budget and do what the state does? When are politics going to catch up the needs of our school district,” Frankenfield asked.

Director George Gatanis asked how the committee members felt about the preliminary budget and each member expressed some reservation about the initial figures.

“I agree but only at this preliminary stage,” Director Susan Lea said.

“I agree too, but only at this point,” Director Carol Klinger said.

Director Mary Ziegler expressed she “understood the administrators would do all they can, but we have to go forward to keep our options open.”

Director Audrey Frick agreed and said historically the board has been able to open up “as much as they can do to whittle down the budget intelligently.”

Director Joseph Gnall also agreed with the other committee members and asked if there was anything else that can be done by the committee.

Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Lynn Fuini-Hetton replied it was important to get the challenges to the budget communicated to the public.

Gatanis, Frankenfield, Director Samuel DeFrank and Director Robert Kulp expressed similar thoughts and agreed that without an understanding of how much aid the district was to receive, the committee had no alternative but to move forward with the preliminary budget and try to shave off as much as possible without compromising the education of the students.

In other district business, Director of Facilities William Brackett presented an overview of improvements and purchases needed to maintain the district’s properties and daily functioning.

Brackett said the maintenance department is going to meet with a contractor to consider options to remedy the benzene level in the ground just north of the bus garages on Gaskill Avenue.

According to Brackett, in 1998 a fuel leak was present when underground tanks were removed from the site. A contractor was brought in to examine and assist the township with cleanup efforts; however, after several unsuccessful years, in 2007 the original contractor was replaced with Environmental Control Systems. ECS excavated some of the ground from the garage to the creek bed to determine how far the leak had traveled and then injected a chemical compound into the soil to help lower the benzene level.

Through the use of the compound, the benzene level was reduced to one-third the original tested level, though the current level does not comply with Pennsylvania Statewide health standards.

Brackett said the district has two options - to remove the soil and replace it with new soil or to deem the area “site specific” and accept the soil will never be fully clean. Replacing the soil would be quite costly and possibly utilize more than the $250,000 remaining from the $1 million superfund grant which was issued by the state to clean the ground. The latter option would require the township to disclose the condition of the soil should the property ever be sold. Brackett said it is important to note the ground contamination is “stagnant” and not branching in any direction.

Another consideration presented to the committee was the condition of the tennis courts at the middle school and the price to replace or improve the current courts. The cost of replacing the damaged courts would be approximately $1 million, making replacement infeasible, according to Brackett and committee members. The committee viewed slides of repairs to other districts courts made by American Tennis Courts. Contractors from ATC would be able to build a system over the current courts, continued Brackett, with a repair cost of $160,900 and a 25-year warranty on materials.

The last item for review by the committee was replacement of the 1998 Mercury Villager used by courier staff at the district. Brackett said the costs of repairs to the aging vehicle have exceeded the value. Brackett asked for consideration of a new vehicle and presented the committee with two options for discussion.

After reviewing the information, the committee decided to add the expenditure of the larger of the two vans onto the agenda for the next school board meeting. Bruchak said the expenditure for the van would come from the district’s Capital Reserve Fund and not be an added expense for the 2017-2018 budget.