The Pleasant Valley School Board approved the preliminary budget Thursday night at the board's regular meeting. The budget total topped out at more than $100 million with a possible mill increase of 8.31 percent.

Susan Famularo, the Pleasant Valley business director, said in a written statement, "Thepreliminary budget is the first budget draft to be approved. Itis the starting point for budget deliberations by the schooldistrict administration and Board of Education and is based onrevenue and expenditure estimates, which will become more refinedas the budget process movesforward."Under Act 1, school districts are required by law to approve a preliminary budget. At this point the district doesn't know how much funding may be coming from the state. The governor will not be releasing his budget until March, she said.The proposed $100 million budget would have a real estate millage of 158.1470 mills, Famularo said. The result is a 12.310-mill increase or 8.31 percent. The tax rate for the 2014-2015 school year was 146.016 mills.Famularo explained the budget increase like this. If a home has an average assessed value of $20,872, then the tax bill would be $3,301. This bill is $253 more than it was in 2014-2015. This increase is within the state guidelines of no more than 2.7 percent, plus additional costs for special education and retirement."State revenues are a large unknown at this time," she said. "Millage rates may be reduced, but not increased."For that reason, the district starts at the state's upper limit, because it can't go above that but can go down. As unknown variables become known, such as the number of staff retirements and cost of insurance, the school district will be able to bring the true budget into focus."This is a similar starting point to what the board has done in previous years," she said.Pleasant Valley Superintendent Carole Geary said she anticipates that the budget will decrease as the board works on the numbers. The finished budget will not be adopted until June.Famularo said that revenues other than taxes remain flat. This means that even though the district's expenses are increasing, its funding isn't for the most part. The preliminary budget incorporates $4.6 million from the district's reserves, known as the fund balance, she said.Despite a continued decline in student enrollment, the district's expenses continue to rise. Why?Famularo said the main reasons include employer contributions to retirement, medical insurance and energy costs, as well as other contractual obligations. At this point, the district only has an estimate for the cost of medical insurance. The final rates will not be known until May or June, she said.