At the Whitehall-Coplay School Board meeting June 8, the board approved the final Whitehall-Coplay School District 2020-21 general fund budget and enactment of taxes for the July 1, 2020-June 30, 2021, fiscal year.

The budget includes a 4.5-percent tax increase. The vote was 7-2, with Tina Koren and William Leiner Jr. opposed.

The $76,577,795 budget is an increase of 2.6 percent from the previous year and balances revenues with projected expenditures.

The budget shows an increase of 0.8130 mills for a total real estate tax rate of 18.8809 mills, an approximate increase of $140.99 for the average residential property.

WCSD Superintendent Dr. Lorie Hackett said $2.6 million was cut from the district’s budget and classroom stipends were taken into consideration when cutting $5,000 out of each school’s budget.

Koren expressed concern about cuts to individual classroom budgets.

“I don’t ever want to see things taken from the kids or the teachers who are working. You should have looked somewhere else,” she said.

“We made comments - at two committee meetings - that we wanted to make sure those stipends were in the overall budget,” board member George Makhoul said. “We would have liked that to be added into this actual budget we’re voting on tonight.”

Hackett explained the cuts were made to the budgets for each school building, adding the principals can manage these cuts and ask for more if it is needed.

Hackett acknowledged Whitehall High School Principal Nate Davidson and others involved in the production of the virtual graduation, held June 4 in lieu of an in-person commencement.

“We received so many thanks, and we did our best to make that enjoyable for our families and our graduates,” Hackett said.

“I think the presentation we put on for graduation - for never having done this before and hopefully never having to do it again - was above and beyond what I thought it was going to be,” board President Wayne Grim said. “Hopefully, a couple years from now, we can look back and see what we did when we were faced with adversity.”

Board members approved a contract to hold an in-person commencement ceremony 7 p.m. Aug. 3 at PPL Center, Allentown, dependent upon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Pennsylvania Department of Education compliance guidelines and approval from the solicitor and administration.

Later this week, more information about commencement will be communicated by Davidson to graduates and the community.

The next school board meetings will be 7 p.m. July 13 and Aug. 10. Committee meetings will be 4 p.m. June 22 and Aug. 24.