The Pleasant Valley School Board couldn’t seem to stomach a 4.1% increase in taxes Thursday night.

Len Peeters, chairman of the board’s finance committee, took a poll of the directors at the meeting to find out just how much of an increase they could swallow. Their responses ranged from 2% to 3%.

Laura Jecker started off by saying that she’s very concerned about a tax increase. She said the board was first made aware of a potential 4% increase by former Business Manager Susan Famularo, before her retirement in December. Acting Business Manager Joseph Surridge hasn’t been able to decrease that number. During his presentation at the board meeting on May 27, Surridge said the district was looking at a 4.1% increase and a deficit of $8.1 million.

Jecker said, “I’m very concerned because our seniors and other people in the community have had their taxes go up because of the reassessment.”

Monroe County reassessed property values in 2019.

Peeters asked her for a percentage that she would consider, since the board plans to meet on Tuesday to vote on the budget.

Jecker said 2% to 2.5%.

Director Norm Burger spoke next and said that without knowing how many students are coming back next school year, it’s hard to know for certain how much money is going to be needed. He’s also concerned about issues like the fair funding legislation in the state, which he said would decrease the amount of money the district gets from the state due to their decreasing enrollment numbers.

Last school year more than 700 students went to a cybercharter school outside of the district, 132 students went to private schools, and almost 700 students went to the district’s cyber academy. The district has 2,985 students who physically attend classes. School districts are required by state law to pay charter schools for each student from their district that otherwise would be attending classes in the district. The cost is less for its own cybercharter school. The district does not pay private, religious-based schools.

Burger thinks an increase of 3% would be the lowest they could go. He thinks going too low would eliminate the amount of money they could put in contingent funding and push large tax increases down the road.

Director Susan Kresge said the district’s fund balance is at $18 million right now with $6 million allotted to balance out the budget for the 2020-2021 school year. At present, it looks like the district may need about $5 million instead, which would leave $13 million in the fund balance.

She said every scenario of tax increases from no tax increase to the 4.1% increase shows them needing to draw money from the fund balance to meet the budget for the 2021-2022 school year.

“I’m sitting right where Norm is at 3%,” Kresge said.

Director Teresa Greggo said she was still weighing all of the information.

“I’m leaning toward 2.1%; 3% seems high,” she said. “I have a couple days to really think about this and support what we come up with as a team.”

School board President Donna Yozwiak said enrollment numbers are looking better. All of the schools are seeing a return of students for next school year. The elementary school has 83% returning so far, the intermediate school is at 88%, the middle school at 62%, and the high school at 81%.

“The unknown is Harrisburg’s budget,” she said. The district can only estimate how much they will get from the state.

Yozwiak said she is leaning toward a 2.5% to 3% increase, and Director Dan Wunder agreed with that range.

“There are a lot of unknowns and the 4.1% is something I would never support,” Peeters said. “I would love to see if we would be able to go at 2%, which we did with previous budgets.”

Susan Kresge said the board was provided with the home values in the district. Looking at the highest percentage discussed that evening for the average assessed home value of $139,000, a 3% tax increase would be $96 per year. Yozwiak thanked her for putting it into perspective.

The special meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday via Zoom.