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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- In an effort to cut a nearly $3 million deficit, Hollidaysburg Area School District board members suggested a variety of possible alternatives to a tax increase at Wednesday night's preliminary budget discussion.
Based on a presentation prepared by business manager Autumn Fiscus and accounting operations director Stacey Thomas, the district seems to be leaning toward not raising taxes for the first time in four years. A zero millage increase would leave HASD with a $2,724,727 deficit. Projected revenue for the 2024-25 school year sits at $55,194,566 against a projected $57,919,293 in expenditures.
Fiscus noted that the projected deficit is not the final number -- since several line items could receive further adjustment, and since the state education budget has yet to be finalized.
According to Fiscus, Gov. Josh Shapiro is aiming for a 5.7% increase in basic education funding in his 2024-25 budget, but since it is unlikely he receives the full amount, Fiscus said, the district business office created its proposal based on a more "conservative" 2.5% increase.
Although the proposal under review was built around an unchanged millage tax rate, Thomas could not rule an increase out as a possibility in upcoming budget talks.
"It would be nice to not have a tax increase, but right now that proposal is showing a deficit," Thomas said.
"Things like (the governor's increase) would help chip away at it, but right now without a tax increase, there's no other way to generate revenue," Thomas said.
Members of the current, majority conservative school board questioned the financial prudence of maintaining a $2.7 million deficit, and discussed potential "out of the box" methods to balance the budget.
"There are always areas to cut," board president Carmen Bilek said. "Even a nonprofit organization has to make a profit to survive. You cannot sustain a deficit budget."
Board member Michele Luther raised the idea of potentially scaling back costs in the maintenance department in order to bring the budget back into alignment.
"One place that comes to my mind from working in the business field, as a possible place to cut expenses, is the maintenance department," Luther said, noting that the proposed budget included over $2 million in salary expenses for physical plant staff.
According to Luther, she calculated that the department could cut salaries down to about a $1.5 million total outlay annually, leaving $500,000 to reduce the deficit.
Luther did not specify which employees would receive wage cuts in her plan, and did not address how this may impact the physical plants ability to undertake a suite of repairs across the numerous aging buildings across the district.
"I also have concerns about us constantly buying equipment and repairing equipment, the list goes on and on," she added.
Board member Missy Sullivan questioned the possibility of levying a small tax on items purchased within the district's business community to raise the necessary funds.
"I'm just thinking in my head, so I don't know how this would work 100%, but is there some way to have a small tax on something whenever you're purchasing something within our district," Sullivan inquired.
According to district solicitor Carl Beard, due to increasingly strict state regulations surrounding the methods school districts may raise revenue, this is not possible, noting that the Altoona Area School District's similar program could not be duplicated in Hollidaysburg, since it was grandfathered into the current law.
During a long discussion about ways to cut expenses, board members considered the cost of contracting third-party services compared to in-house support staff for students with disabilities.
Several students in the district require specialized support and are enrolled with Soaring Heights, according to HASD director of special education Katelyn Prosser.
"So, if a child is that ... severely handicapped emotionally or debilitatingly, how did that fall into the public school system," Luther asked.
Prosser said all students are included in their local public school unless their parents opt them into either a homeschool or charter program.
"So medically, there's no programs for them that they would actually receive probably better care," Luther questioned.
School officials are still legally responsible for providing educational services to students who are unable to attend school in-person due to their level of support needs, Prosser said.
"When did that change? I mean there had to have come a year when that law was passed when that was decided ... that they're now the responsibility of the public school district," Luther inquired.
The HASD special education department provides a number of different services for students who require a different learning environment, Prosser said, including multi-disability support classrooms, which are designed to accommodate students who need one-on-one support services.
HASD is in a tricky position, according to Fiscus, because the district is federally and state-mandated to provide a baseline amount of services to all students, regardless of budgetary concerns.
"Take special education for example. If a student shows up tomorrow ... we can't say 'oh you need to wait till July 1 so we can build this in the budget,' we have to have that money there," Fiscus said. "We have to be able to absorb those (unexpected costs)."
The district is scheduled to vote on the proposed budget on May 15, after which it will be available for public review, before adopting the final, adjusted budget during its June 19 meeting.
Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.