PATTON — The Cambria Heights School Board will raise real estate taxes by 2 mills to pay for renovations to the high school.

The district’s tax millage is now set at 63 mills after action at Tuesday’s meeting.

District Business Manager Stephanie Renninger confirmed the increase means that taxpayers would pay $2 more for every thousand dollars their property is worth.

“It depends on what their property is assessed at,” she said of how much taxpayers would pay.

Renninger said, if the average taxpayer’s property is assessed at $14,000, then taxes will increase $28 per year.

She said the school district receives about $20 million in revenue each year and is looking at expenditures of $23 million for the 2018-19 fiscal year.

She said the school district is expecting to receive $4.3 million from real estate taxes, once board members pass the budget with the increase. According to Renninger, the school district received $4.16 million from real estate taxes for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

“We’re paying more for retirement and getting less (money) from the state,” she said of why the proposed budget has a $2.7 million deficit.

Renninger said the school budgets for retirement and puts the money into the district’s reserves each year. It is expected to cost the school district about $3 million to pay retirement costs.

Also Tuesday, board members heard Carrolltown resident Nancy Behe’s concerns about the high school’s swimming pool, which was shut down after it failed an inspection in late March.

“We as taxpayers and parents in the Cambria Heights School District have the opportunity to make a difference in our children’s lives,” she said. “We need to encourage you, as our elected board members, to try any resource you have available to improve the pool as part of the high school’s (renovation).”

Behe pointed out that the only other community swimming pools in the Cambria Heights district are in Hastings and Patton boroughs.

Behe said the school’s pool is used by both middle and high school pupils. She added that it could also benefit everyone in the community — including taxpayers who no longer have children in the district.

“This pool is a jewel, and it’s an endangered (asset of the school district),” Behe said.

High School Principal Ken Kerchenske said phase 1 of the high school renovation, which is scheduled to begin this summer, would replace some of the school’s ceiling and floor tiles. He said it would not include fixing the swimming pool.

Board members approved a motion to form a community committee to study the feasibility of repairing the pool.