Panther Valley School board members must choose between raising property taxes or possibly running out of money in the general fund by the end of the 2020-21 school year.

“We’ve had budget and finance meetings. We are now at the point where no one else has any suggestions. Unless anyone else has suggestions, here we are,” said business manager Ken Marx.

The school board voted 6-3 to pass a proposed $28.2 million spending plan for the next school year Wednesday night. Under state law the board has until June 30 to approve a final budget.

They also voted to reorganize, replacing board President Gary Porembo with Danny Matika.

The budget includes a proposed tax increase of 0.75 mills for homeowners in the district’s Carbon County section and 3.4 mills for Schuylkill.

Under the proposed budget, the owner of a home with the average property value in the Carbon section, $19,000, would see their tax bill increase by $13 to $1,243.

The owner of a home with the average property value in the Schuylkill County section, $16,800, would see their tax bill increase by $57, to $1,011.

It will leave the district with less than $50,000 in its fund balance at the end of the year.

Gary Porembo, Renee DeMelfi and Irene Genther voted against the proposed budget.

The board voted against a budget with zero tax increase for Carbon and a small tax increase for Coaldale. That budget would have left them with negative $75,000 in the fund balance.

Genther and DeMelfi said they were opposed to raising taxes on any residents during the COVID-19 shutdown.

“This is going to be ‘everybody tighten up the budget, everybody has to watch what they’re spending,’?” Genther said.

The district hopes to receive $540,000 from the federal CARES Act for coronavirus relief. But Marx said that the money is specified for things like online education and cleaning school facilities.

Marx said it’s possible that money could be used to fund purchases of software and technology which they planned to cut from the budget to save money.

Board member Marco D’Ancona said he and Marx spent several weeks working on the budget, cutting about $800,000.

“I worked on the budget with Ken for quite some time, put a lot of work into it. I know it’s not what everyone wants to hear on the tax increase, nor do I,” D’Ancona said.

Marx said that teachers have agreed to a 10 percent cut in their budget for classroom materials.

The budget situation comes amid a leadership transition in the district. Current Superintendent Dennis Kergick is set to retire next month, and Marx has accepted a position with another school district. Last month the board hired David McAndrew Jr. as its new superintendent.

Genther suggested several last-minute items for cuts which were not included in the proposed budget. She suggested that the district stop paying dues for its Act 93 administrators’ professional associations. that the district limit the number of days it would pay for a substitute for each teacher - with teachers paying the fee after that.

She also proposed having parents declare that their children won’t ride the bus, so the district could consolidate bus routes.

William Mansberry proposed renegotiating the district’s contract with its bus provider, Kistler Transportation, or its janitorial services contract.

Gary Porembo proposed doing away with JROTC. Other board members said that is a bad idea, and they would like to see if students from other area school districts would be interested in joining the program.

“Why would you want to cut a program that does so much good for this district? I don’t want to hear that again, we’re not cutting it,” Mansberry said.