The Parkland School Board granted final approval to the $192.4 million budget for 2020-21 at the June 23 meeting.

Although the document reflects a 3.17-percent increase in expenditures over the previous term, it comes with a zero increase in the tax rate for school district property owners.

The administrative financial team anticipates $183.7 million in revenue which will necessitate an appropriation of $8.7 million from the fund balance to meet the projected $192.4 million in expenditures.

Under PA Act 1, the district could have increased the millage rate by 2.6 percent to 16.11.

However, the board and administration chose to avoid the tax increase to help people in the community who may be struggling due to business closures, unemployment and other challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, the millage rate remains at 15.71, the same as in 2019-20.

When district officials examined the impact of COVID-19 in May, they anticipated $11.2 million would have to be taken from the fund balance to fill in the gap between income and costs.

In the final presentation of the budget, that amount was lowered considerably.

Superintendent Richard Sniscak commented on the matter.

“Our team worked hard to reduce the amount of appropriated fund balance from $11.2 million to $8.7 million,” Sniscak said. “All of our decisions were driven by our need to support our community through this challenging financial time.”

By decreasing staff positions, including four teachers, summer employees and summer library, the district whittled $860,027 off expenditures.

Putting off textbook purchases and building projects until next school year, limiting technology and instructional materials purchases, and reducing professional development opportunities for staff and board enabled a savings of $916,881.

Anticipation of $772,705 in CARES Act relief funding also contributed to the reduction in the fund balance appropriation.

Sniscak said some limited savings occurred due to schools being closed, but all school districts in the commonwealth were mandated to continue paying employees and debt service.

As these items comprise the majority of Parkland’s annual budget, few savings were realized through the school shutdown.