Trending
CLAYSBURG -- A preliminary 2022-23 budget that would cost the average district homeowner $40 more a year and generate about $200,000 in additional revenue was unanimously approved by the Claysburg-Kimmel School Board on Wednesday.
"I know how difficult it always is when we get to this point in time as we're juggling the revenue that's brought in each and every year against what's funded to us from the state and federal governments," Board President Richard Gergely said. "It's always a challenge because when we fall in a deficit, then we're asking our shareholders to step in and that's a tough decision for all of us to make."
The increase would see Greenfield Township's millage rate go from the current 8.33 to 8.78 and Kimmel Township's from 10.29 to 10.62, according to Mirror reports. The proposed expenditures for the upcoming school year total $15,305,009. Total revenue, including the real estate tax increase, will be an estimated $14,806,450 -- meaning the district could see a deficit of $498,559.
The budget will be made available for 30 days on the district's website for public viewing before the board votes in June on a final budget.
The board also unanimously approved a request to the Pennsylvania Department of Education to reconfigure the Claysburg-Kimmel Junior-Senior High School into two schools: Claysburg-Kimmel Junior High for grades 7-8 and Claysburg-Kimmel Senior High for grades 9-12.
"We hope to have certain administrators like guidance counselors -- hopefully, if we can get it approved in the budget -- an assistant principal assigned to that grade level, and the other thing is for reporting so we can compare apples to apples," Superintendent Darren McLaurin said.
According to data from 2018, with the grades 7-12 building, the school's score was 46.5, whereas if it had a 9-12 building, its score would be 64.5, McLaurin said.
"It'll be a building within a building so no one's changing buildings, no one's going anywhere different," he said. "We have to compete against schools that are 9-12, so it's to our benefit to have the same configuration as those schools."
In other matters, the board unanimously approved a proposal for a new football, baseball and softball scoreboards from DeMans Team Sports, a CoStars vendor in Brookville.
The football scoreboard will be 26 feet long and 8 feet high and will include rear illuminated captions, a control panel with carry case, an outdoor trumpet horn, a top mount rear illuminated truss sign with letters and logo and a bottom rear illuminated donor sign at a cost of $27,450. The board opted to approve an optional add-on of LED field timers that would include two 30-inch LED displays with wireless receivers installed and handheld, battery-powered wireless control for on- field use by officials for an additional $4,450.
The baseball and softball scoreboards will include a control panel with carry case, a top mount school logo panel with logo and lettering and a bottom mount sponsor panel at a cost of $6,650. The board opted to approve optional wireless control for both scoreboards, costing $750 each.
Not including shipping charges that could range between $1,600 to $1,800, the scoreboards and add-ons will cost a total of $46,700.
The board also voted to authorize the administration to seek quotes for turf for the athletic project through CoStars.
"Basically we're going to have our field architect work with the turf people within their CoStars bid to do the specs," district business manager Michelle Smithmyer said.
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.