PENNCREST School Board poised to vote on $57.9 million budget Thursday

Sean P. Ray, The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
·4 min read

May 11—CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS — PENNCREST School Board is expected to vote Thursday on whether to approve a $57.9 million budget for the 2022-23 school year which includes a 0.5-mill tax increase for school district residents in Crawford County.

During the board's work session on Monday, Business Manager Kristen Eckart reviewed the final version of the budget, which she said was little changed from a preliminary version presented last month. The financial plan has expenditures of $57,946,966 and revenue of $55,946,258, for a deficit of just a little more than $2 million.

That deficit, however, is not the cause of the proposed tax increase in the budget. Rather, it is included to pay off borrowing that the school district has taken out to pay for renovations at all of its school areas under the Guaranteed Energy Savings Act (GESA).

GESA is a Pennsylvania law that allows school districts to waive some of the usual requirements for renovation work in exchange for the contracting companies to guarantee the district will save money on energy costs. PENNCREST is pursing GESA projects at all schools in the district, with work already completed at the Maplewood schools and planned for the Saegertown schools this summer.

The school board in 2020 approved a bond resolution allowing for up to $37.82 million to pay for the GESA work, as well as roof renovations at some of the schools. So far, the school district has performed two rounds of borrowing under the resolution, each of about $10 million.

Eckart's predecessor as business manager, Bryan Hobson, advised the school board to gradually increase the school district's millage by half a mill each year for three years starting in 2021 to pay for the bond debt. Should the latest budget be approved, it will be the second mill increase recommended by Hobson and carried on by Eckart.

The deficit, meanwhile, will be paid off using reserve funds. Eckart told The Meadville Tribune that PENNCREST has a fund balance of $14.3 million, and that the deficit in the budget represents a "worst-case scenario" that administrators will try to lessen during the school year.

If approved, the mill increase would bring Crawford County's millage to 53.25. One mill equals $1 for every $1,000 in a property's assessed value.

In addition, the budget will result in a 0.08-mill increase for Venango Couty residents in PENNCREST School District. Such an increase is dictated by a tax formula under the Act 1 Index, which automatically sets tax rates for neighborhoods across county lines in Pennsylvania. This will bring the millage for Venango County residents in PENNCREST to 19.59.

There was some bright news in terms of PENNCREST budgeting. Eckart said the school district's homestead/farmstead allocation from the state came in higher than expected, from a budgeted around $1.2 million to $1.6 million.

The state's homestead/farmstead program sends money to school districts in order to reduce property tax on property owners. Eckart said property owners will see an increased reduction of $58 in their taxes thanks to the higher allocation. Comparatively, Superintendent Timothy Glasspool said the millage tax increase will raise taxes on the average home in PENNCREST by $12 for the year.

Besides the school district's budget, the board is also expected to vote on the food service budget. Food at PENNCREST is outsourced to Nutrition Group. Katie Baldwin, a regional manager for the company, presented the latest food service budget to the board.

Baldwin said the budget is expected to see a reversal of fortune thanks to the predicted end of a U.S. Department of Agriculture waiver on free meal programs implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The waiver reimbursed the school district for free meals given to students at a higher rate than before the pandemic and allowed more families access to such programs.

As such, while the food service budget made money in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years — at $165,754 and $350,018, respectively — the budget for next year predicts ending in the negatives at minus $443,645, though Baldwin called this a "very conservative, worst-case scenario" amount.

In addition to the free meal waiver issue, Baldwin said raising costs are also to blame for the bleak outlook for the budget. She said food costs have risen 10 percent, giving an example of a case of peaches going from $31 last year to $35 this year. This is coupled with higher costs on paper products and higher fuel expenditures.

Seeking to address these costs, Baldwin said Nutrition Group will run promotional events and seek to inform parents on how to apply for a meal benefit program if they qualify. This provides free meals for their children, and reimburses the school district for the cost.

Sean P. Ray can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at .