Panther Valley School Board members got their first look at a proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year Wednesday.

The $37.1 million spending proposal calls for no increase or decrease in taxes, said Jesse Walck, business manager.

The millage rates for taxpayers in both Carbon County and in Coaldale will likely change with rebalancing, but the numbers aren’t final yet, he said.

“The state determines the formula we have to use,” Walck said.

Some factors affecting the budget include high retirement contributions, inflation, increasing enrollment and increased special education costs due to increased number of students, Walck said.

“The PSERS contribution rate continues to be high,” he said, pointing out the rate was 33.9%. “It’s almost 34 cents on every dollar that we wind up having to pay on employee salaries.”

Inflation is also driving up costs of things the district has to buy just to operate, Walck said, and increased enrollment means the district needs more of everything, including specialists.

The enrollment, which has been steadily climbing, topped 2,000 students this year, he said.

The budget projects revenues of $37,191,535.22, which is an increase of $2,766,139.08 over last year, Walck said.

The sources of the increase are basic education funding from last year, special education funding and a one-time return of expense and interest income, he said.

The board, which met in special session Wednesday, approved changes to the way it handles health care.

Those changes, which include bringing on the Seltzer Insurance Group as its health insurance adviser and joining the public school health insurance cooperative (PSHIC), will give the district back money it has in its current health insurance trust.

“We have about $750,000 in that fund,” Walck said. “So that would be revenue back to us for this year. That’s one-time money, but all of sudden we would have that money available to us.”

The budget does not have additional basic education funding from the state for this year, but does include an additional $160,000 in special education funding, which everyone believes will be funded by the state, he said

Board members asked if any of the fair funding money was expected, and Superintendent David McAndrew Jr. said that they have nothing from the Basic Education Funding Commission.

The commission approved a plan to change the way schools are funded in the state early this year, but has not been implemented yet. Panther Valley was among the districts that sued over an unfair funding formula that put poor districts at a disadvantage.

On the expense side, the district continues to see cyber charter school costs rise,

Walck said. Those costs are $3.5 million, up $150,000 due to the district having more cyber charter school students, he said.

Last year, the district had 212 cyber charter students, and last week that number was 266, Walck said.

“We’ll be making a push this summer again to try to get these kids back,” McAndrew said.

Some students who aren’t doing well toward the end of the year switch to cyber charter school to bring up their grades, and then there are students who miss a lot of school and switch to cyber charter school to avoid the district taking them to court, he said.

“There are a lot of games being played,” he said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro is trying to cap the price of cyber charter school, McAndrew pointed out, and should that happen, the district could see the cost drop by $1.5 million a year.

Panther Valley is also projecting a more than $700,000 increase in special education spending in the coming year, as well as increased transportation costs, Walck said.

The district needs to buy another bus to handle the increased number of students and reduce overcrowded buses and additional bus runs to get students to school, he said.

Maintenance will also see a $50,000 increase in its supply budget, as inflation continues to erode the department’s purchasing power, Walck said. There is no increase in the equipment budget, but that could be adjusted with the capital plan.

The district is also looking at spending $125,000 to begin replacing Chromebooks purchased in 2020, and will be shifting $100,000 into the capital projects funds, he said.