Jim Thorpe School District is moving forward with a budget that would not raise taxes.

School board members approved a $50,755,851 budget which keeps real estate taxes at the 45.52 mills for the 10th straight year.

They held a special meeting after the board rejected a budget with a tax increase at their regular board meeting last week.

The budget will require the district to use $5.3 million from its fund balance. It would leave the district with a fund balance of $2.4 million at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

School board members said that they still plan to find ways to save money even after the budget is passed.

“We have $50 million in expenses. We cannot change that (now), but we can change that throughout the year,” said board member Cindy Lesisko-Henning.

The biggest increases in expenses come from contractual pay increases of three percent for employees, a 12 percent increase in health care costs, and a $1.6 million increase in the cost of cyber charter school tuition.

The board cut $2 million in expenses from 2021-22. The savings came from transportation, facilities, debt service and leaving vacant 11 aide positions and two teaching positions.

School board members say they will once again challenge the property assessments of homeowners who purchase new homes.

The interim assessments prompted backlash in the past, however school board members said that they won’t apply to anyone who buys a home before July 1, 2022.