Portage Area School District adopts final budget

Area property owners may see decrease in real estate taxes

PORTAGE -- Property owners in the Portage Area School District may see a decrease in their real estate property taxes after school board members adopted the final 2025-26 budget Wednesday.

With three members absent, the board unanimously voted to keep the district's real estate tax millage rate at 56.64 mills. Board Vice President Susan Berardinelli, secretary Matthew Decort and Jason Corte were not present at the meeting.

According to business manager Jeff Vasilko, the Homestead/Farmstead property tax exclusion increased from $497,479 to $548,231 this year. Property owners who are eligible for the exclusion could see a tax decrease of about $60, Vasilko said.

The amount of expenditures in the 2025-26 budget is $16,287,830.80, which is an anticipated increase in spending of $788,486.47 over last year's budget, Vasilko said.

During the board's committee of the whole meeting, held prior to the board's regular meeting, Vasilko said Portage Area is looking at a deficit of $346,476 for next school year, which will be paid out of the district's unrestricted fund balance of about $1.5 million.

The shortfall could change depending on the district's anticipated revenues allocations from the state and federal governments, Vasilko said.

"There's little things here and there, but overall I feel pretty comfortable with that number," Vasilko said of the deficit, which is $59,010 less than it was under the preliminary budget the board approved in May.

Vasilko said the district was able to save about $98,000 in salaries and benefits through attrition -- not replacing staff vacancies with new hires.

In the last month, Vasilko said the district's general liability insurance also increased nearly $10,000. School officials are now preparing to refurbish laptops for high school freshmen at a cost of about $400 per laptop, he said.

Vasilko said he tries to budget the district's revenues conservatively and budgets expenses more than they're anticipated so the district can balance the budget each year.

The next scheduled board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 13 in the elementary school's auditorium.