Funding and expenditures were among the major topics at the April 27 Saucon Valley School Board meeting, which was held in the high school auditorium for the first time in over a year. As with the prior two meetings, most board members and administrators attended in-person, but board member Sandra Miller, among others, joined via Zoom.

Since the board voted to return to in-person meetings in March, the previous meetings were held in the auditorium to allow for physical distancing. It was suggested at the last meeting to in-person meetings, if possible, due to technological issues, since the meeting continues to be available live through Zoom as well as for subsequent viewing through the district’s YouTube channel.

The meeting’s centerpiece was the annual state budget report, presented by Dr. Andrew Armagost and Hannah Barrick from the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials. In the presentation, Armagost provided details on the Fair Funding formula the organization uses to determine subsidies for each respective district, contingent on factors like total enrollment, charter school enrollment, poverty rates and language barriers among students, and more.

Armagost shared some key points of data specific to Saucon Valley’s position and provided insight into the process by which PASBO arrived at its final numbers. The district has seen a gradual increase in charter school enrollment, English language learners and moderate and acute student poverty rates in recent years, he said, and future projections through the 2022-23 school year see that trend continuing.

Additional determining factors include median household income and the ability to generate local revenues through taxes within a given district, Barrick explained. For example, since Saucon Valley’s median household income is approximately $18,000 greater than that of the state, it reduces the amount of funding available to the district, she said.

Governor Tom Wolf has already put forward adding an additional $200 million in funding to the initial $6.2 billion proposal to help districts in cash-strapped municipalities, which rely on property taxes for education funding. In order to level funding for the 344 districts projected to come up short compared to prior years through the previous formula, Wolf also suggests adding $1.5 billion to ensure that no district in the state loses resources, Armagost added.

According to PASBO’s numbers, Saucon Valley suffered a 6.2 percent decrease in state funding for the 2020-21 school year, but will see a 7.63 percent increase for 2021-22. The only local districts projected to suffer losses for the upcoming school year are the Easton Area and Palisades school districts.

In other news, Superintendent Dr. Craig Butler provided a brief update on the 2021-22 proposed district budget. The district’s current proposal is $50,677,138, which represents a 2.28 percent increase over the prior year. Millage would neither increase nor decrease and $379,401 will be pulled from the district’s fund balance to account for the deficit caused by a shortfall of income, he said. The deadline to adopt the budget is May 31.

Also, Assistant to the Superintendent Jaime Vlasaty provided an update on the district’s attendance models with their third quarter Check-In Survey. She touted positive feedback from parents/guardians regarding the educational options and quality offered during the 2020-21 school year, with approximately two-thirds of nearly 800 respondents indicating that they feel ‘very satisfied’ with Saucon Valley’s performance and only about 5 percent responding ‘unsatisfied.’