On March 4, the Salisbury Township school board held its monthly operations committee meeting at Salisbury Middle School. The meeting was truncated to allow time for a special follow-up meeting to address the possible reconfiguration of elementary school students in the district and the potential closure of Western Salisbury Elementary School.

The focus of the meeting’s business was a presentation of the preliminary budget for the 2020-2021 school year by Chief Financial Officer Michael Taylor. After the presentation, the next measures for the budget will be approval of the preliminary final budget at the board meeting May 13 and the approval of the final budget, which is scheduled to happen at the meeting June 17.

This budget presentation put a lens on the increases in expenses between 2014 and 2019 for the Salisbury Township School District.

The average yearly increase for regular and special programs is about 6.6 percent, with employee benefit increases coming in at 11.4 percent and charter school and other alternative school tuitions ranking at 17.3 percent.

For support services, the average yearly increase is 10.6 percent, with employee benefits sitting at 14.1 percent and purchased professional and technical services at 12.7 percent. When the employee benefit portion was broken down further, it seems the area of retirement funds at 22.9 percent was the largest drain on the budget.

Another notable area of large and continued increase in district spending was building repair and maintenance, where the increase is 25.4 percent. These areas have been noted in previous board meetings and presentations as areas that are outpacing the ability to gain revenue in the district and affecting the budget deficit.

After examining the rising costs, Taylor reviewed areas of revenue. The millage rate is the tax rate used to calculate local taxes. For 2020-2021, the millage rate is calculated at $1,320,596.

Currently, due to an Act 1 regulation implemented in 2010-2011, the district cannot raise taxes more than 2.6 percent per year and thus cannot use this as a reliable revenue source to cover costs rising at a faster rate than cash can be brought in.

Using the allowable increase through Act 1, the revenue from property tax amount comes in at $670,517. The final breakdown demonstrated that an increase in millage rate would need to sit at 22 percent to cover rising costs; however, using the maximum allowable increase amount, the millage rate only sits at 13.9 percent and shows why there is instability in the budget at this time.

Due to the imbalance in rising costs versus revenue, several considerations are being made in order to balance the budget. First is the possible reconfiguration of the schools in the district and closure of WSE. Taylor also cited possibly outsourcing of custodial and maintenance staff to third party contractors, reviewing special education services and reevaluating walk-zones and students per bus to greatly reduce transportation costs.

In addition, the board mentioned they would continue to appeal the legal decision regarding the Lehigh Valley Health Network tax assessment – that seeks to gain income from the hospital properties within the district, currently untaxed due to their nonprofit status.

Superintendent Dr. Randy Ziegenfuss clarified his statement from the last school board committee meeting where he felt media outlets portrayed his words as an attack on the LVHN institution,

“We view the hospital as an asset to the community.” He went on to say they provide jobs and quality care to the citizens of Salisbury and neighboring municipalities. He mentioned the school district has a positive opinion of the organization, but a disagreement over taxes, which will be resolved in a court of law, not a “court of public opinion.”

The next operations committee meeting will take place April 1 at SMS.