Tamaqua Area School District seems as if it will not raise taxes about the Act I index for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

Business Manager Connie Ligenza briefly reviewed the matter with the school board at Tuesday's committee meetings.Ligenza noted that the Act I index is 3.4 percent, which equates to 1.2 mills, or about $362,212 in tax revenue.She said the board could proceed through the prescribed budget timeline established by the state Department of Education, or pass a resolution to not raise taxes beyond the index for the 2017-18 fiscal year.Earlier this month, the Finance Committee approved the recommendation that the PDE has set the base index for the 2017-2018 budget cycle at 2.5 percent.A motion will be on the board's meeting agenda Dec. 20 to accept the index as the maximum tax rate increase.In June, the board approved this year's spending plan with a 1.09-mill increase in the property tax rate.That decision increased the district's millage rate from 34.29 to 35.38 mills, and called for a homeowner with a home valued at $100,000, which would be assessed at $50,000, to pay $55 more to the district in property taxes.The final budget left the district with a $2.12 million deficit, meaning it had to use $1,923,000 from its fund balance to balance the budget.Ligenza said at that time the reason for the increase was due primarily to the capital needs/improvements of its buildings on the board-approved list of additional items.School Performance ProfileAlso on Tuesday, the district's School Performance Profile scores were reviewed.The high school's mark came in at 82.1, Tamaqua Elementary at 69.3, and West Penn Elementary at 70.3.According to PDE's website, the Pennsylvania School Performance Profile offers a web-based resource for districts/schools to communicate performance results to various constituencies and assist districts and schools in aligning and focusing resources for continuous improvement.It is based heavily on state assessment scores, but also includes college readiness tests, industry standards-based assessments, graduation, promotion, and attendance rates, as well as evidence of offering rigorous courses as other factors in the calculation.