PORTAGE — The final 2026-27 general fund budget was unanimously approved with a 2-mill tax increase during Wednesday’s Portage Area School Board meeting.

Traditionally, the district raises taxes every other year to maintain its local effort, which determines the amount of money the state gives back or withholds from the district each year, business manager Jeff Vasilko explained.

Since the district didn’t raise taxes last year, the board voted to approve the tax increase this year, which will generate about $70,385 in revenue for the district and set its new school real estate tax at 58.64 mills, Vasilko said.

The median assessed property value in the district is $12,500, which means a person who owns property within the district will pay about an additional $25 per every $12,500 a property is assessed at, Vasilko said.

The amount of expenditures in the budget is about $16.8 million, which represents a spending increase of $601,169.49 over last year’s budget, according to the meeting’s agenda.

Expenditures went up about $149,000 from what was proposed in the preliminary budget that the board approved in May, mostly due to salaries and benefits and some increase in supplies, Vasilko said.

The district is now left with a deficit of about $331,000, which will be covered by its general fund, which had a balance of about $1.63 million as of May, Vasilko said.

During the meeting, the board also approved its Homestead/Farmstead property tax exclusion in the amount of $547,799.09.

That amount equates to a property tax reduction of about $327.50 for everyone who received approval for the exclusion through the county, Vasilko said.

“Last year it was $323, so it’s up about $4 and that goes off of your property taxes,” Vasilko said.

In other business, the board approved hiring Krystal Smith as the acting superintendent of schools for the period of July 1 to Dec. 31, 2026. Smith currently serves as the Portage Area Junior/Senior High School’s assistant principal.

According to Denise Moschgat, the executive secretary to the superintendent of schools, the board approved a sabbatical leave for Superintendent Pete Noel for the same time period during last month’s board meeting.

Noel is expected to return to work when his sabbatical leave ends, Moschgat said, noting Noel’s contract doesn’t expire until June 2028, at which point he could choose to retire or stay with the district, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.