Palmerton Area School District continues to mull its options as it remains mired in an economic crisis.

Donna Les, part-time interim acting business manager, provided an update on the 2011-12 budget to the school board at a committee workshop on TuesdayLes said that the $27,026,260 preliminary budget is comprised of salaries and benefits, fixed costs, and student activities/athletics.Fixed costs account for 89.14 percent, 60 percent of which includes salaries and benefits, while student activities/athletics account for just over 1.5-percent."I'm looking for some discussion from the board," Les said. "I'm looking for a dollar value we have to cut."Resident William Ravert asked how much the district has left in its fund balance, to which Les replied $730,000.Superintendent Carol Boyce said the district could erase $30,000 from next year's budget courtesy of a Title I Federal Program.Boyce said that the district had almost $30,000 budgeted in next year's preliminary budget for computer lab equipment for S.S. Palmer Elementary. Since the school is a Title I building, she said that qualifies it to receive additional federal money.As a result, Boyce said the board would have to pass a resolution that states that local funding is not available, which would enable the district under Title I guidelines to utilize Title I funding to update the lab and replace older equipment with newer equipment."We could take that $30,000 out of this year's Title I funding, and buy equipment from the current fiscal federal Title I money," Boyce said. "Here's a perfect way to utilize it."Boyce said the overall budget picture "isn't pretty.""We have a lot of work to do," she said. "We have a huge amount left to do."Les told the board the district needs to look at better investments, and needs to be aggressive with general fund investing."I think the district will have to go out and look at different investments; you need to move your money, you've got to stay on top of that," Les said. "All districts statewide are going to have to do that."Boyce said the board planned to further discussion on the budget as part of an executive session tonight that is not open to the public."Hopefully, some productive conversation will come out of that," she said. "Hopefully, the administration can come up with more creativity, but it's going to have to involve your input as well."In February, the board, on a 5-4 vote, agreed to adopt a $27,388,661 preliminary budget that calls for a 12.6-percent, or 5.5-mill increase that would raise the millage rate from 43.64 to 49.14 mills.That would mean a person with a home valued at $100,000 and assessed at $50,000 would pay $2,455, or $275 more in property taxes to the district next year.Even if the board were to approve next year's budget with a 5.506 mill increase, Boyce said the least amount it must cut from next year's budget is $808,882.In dollars, that would mean an annual increase of $275 based on a $50,000 assessment, or $23 a month, Boyce said. Per child, that would result in $409 less per child, said Boyce, who added that the district has already decreased in pupil spending over a two year-period by $661 per child.Resident Randolph Getz said "I think that's why it's important if you make cuts, you make them this year."Boyce said the problem isn't uncommon."We're all in it together," she said. "This is not a problem unique to any one group."Resident Charles Cales told the board he doesn't envy their task at hand."Governor Corbett's pointing to you making it look like you're the bad guy," Cales said. "He's putting it on you people as the bad guys, and you're not."Director Susan Debski said that while cuts must be made, "there needs to be a good balance."Boyce then polled each board member as to how much of an increase in next year's budget they would potentially agree to support.Director Clarence Myers said he would support a 4-mill increase; Director Carol Dwyer a zero-mill increase; Director Darlene Yeakel a 3-mill increase; Director Tina Snyder a 2.5-mill increase; Director Stuart Henritzy a 3-mill increase; Director Carl Bieling a 2.5-mill increase, Debski a 5-mill increase, and Scherer a 5.506-mill increase.If the board were to approve the budget with a 3-mill increase, it would still need to make $1.5 million in cuts."It looks like we need to come up with $1.5 million in cuts," Scherer said.Les advised the board that it needs to adopt a proposed final budget by May 19. Final adoption is due by June 30.The board agreed to hold another budget meeting at 5:30 p.m. April 12.Last month, the board looked over revised budget's brought forth by the district's administrative team, and were asked to suggest potential tax increases it could support. As part of their revised budgets, the administrative team came up with over $167,000 worth of cuts from their original spending plans.At that time, Les said that revenues were at $26,187,118, while expenditures were at $27,026,000, which left an $838,882 shortfall.Les told the school board at a committee workshop last month that about $10,000 had been shaved off the district's preliminary budget.She said at that time the cuts would reduce the proposed spending plan from $27,388,817 to $27,378,655 due to medical insurance budgeted costs ($244,116); an athletic fund transfer ($133,545); and an increase in the IU Special Education Contract ($130,086).Other areas that were affected were a new technology position ($67,018); add impact of support staff contract ($58,918) cut new part-time secretary ($27,387); and cut facilities vehicle ($21,700), Les previously said.If the board were to approve a budget with a 5.5-mill increase, Les said at that time that would mean no program cuts would be required.Should the board approve a budget with a 5-mill increase, that would require program cuts of $144,304; a 4-mill increase, $429,489; a 3-mill increase, $714,674; a 2-mill increase, $999,589; and a 1-mill increase, $1,285,044, she said at that time.All of those scenarios were prior to the governor's proposed budget passed last month.Some of the non-mandated costs discussed include a districtwide salary freeze in the 2011-12 school year ($398,132); departmental cuts ($167,524); pupil transportation, excluding special education per IEP ($500,000); the potential reduction of a 4.2-percent increase to 1.9-percent in the Carbon Career & Technical Institute's 2011-12 budget ($153,922); and the ability to rescind approval of Lehigh Carbon Community College's 2011-12 budget ($206,618).Other non-mandated costs are the potential elimination of aides at Towamensing Elementary, S.S. Palmer Elementary and the high school ($197,000); athletics wages plus transfer plus insurance ($398,649); student activities ($126,923); elimination of all overtime ($30,559); elimination of all districtwide summer hours ($20,904); public library support ($17,000); curriculum writing ($17,553); and to eliminate drug testing funds ($10,000)At present, none of the non-mandated costs have been eliminated by the board.In January, Les reworked next year's spending plan in order to avoid an additional 2.72-mill increase on top of a 3.56-mill, or 8.15 percent, increase in the 2011-12 preliminary budget the board agreed to advertise for adoption in January.Otherwise, that would have increased the millage rate from 43.64 to 47.20 mills, which would have meant a person with a home valued at $100,000 and assessed at $50,000 would have paid $2,360, or about $180 more in property taxes next year.Les told the board at that time that of the $1.7 million the district had in its fund balance, only $730,000 remains after the other $923,000 was used to balance the current year's budget.The amount of money the district budgeted for its share of the 2011-12 CCTI budget was understated by about $351,060, Les said at that time. Also, the loss of $426,051 in federal program money would have required an additional 2.72-mill increase in the district's preliminary budget, she said.Les said revisions to next year's preliminary budget increased expenditures $555,498, from $26.8 million to $27.3 million, which represents a 1.95-mill increase over the initial preliminary budget.Boyce acknowledged at that time that a reconciliation of billing showed that the district has "been significantly under budgeting for the last several years." Les said the reconciliation was completed in November.However, Les cautioned that the preliminary budget is only a rough draft, and therefore could be modified between now and final adoption due by June 30.Boyce said at that time she and Les "will be talking with every building administrator" in an effort to re-evaluate their respective spending plans.In December, the committee met with each of the district's department heads as part of a pair of meetings in its attempt to craft next year's spending plan.As required by Act 1 of 2006, the board intends to seek approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, or the Carbon County Court, for all referendum exceptions for which the district qualifies.Les told the committee there were several referendum exceptions the district qualified for: special education, retirement contributions, and maintenance of local revenues.This year, homeowners saw a 3.9 percent, or 1.64-mill increase, in their property tax rates after the board in June approved the 2010-11 budget on a 5-4 vote that raised the millage rate from 42 to 43.64 mills.That meant a person with a home valued at $100,000, which was assessed at $50,000, paid $2,182 in property taxes to the district, $82 more than the $2,100 rate they paid in 2009-10 when the board passed a budget with a 2.44 percent, or 1 mill, increase that resulted in a $50 increase for residents with the same home value.