Meeting its state-mandated deadline on the final day allowed, Jim Thorpe Area School District’s board of directors approved a 2026-27 general fund budget Tuesday with a 2.05% real estate tax increase.

The hike is half the maximum the district was authorized to raise. Two board members, Gerald Strubinger and Dennis McGinley, voted no and Strubinger urged his colleagues to push for a county-wide property reassessment rather than raise taxes at all.

Tuesday’s vote ended nearly three weeks of deliberation that began when the board tabled the same budget at its June 17 regular meeting without agreeing on a tax percentage. Pennsylvania school districts are required by law to adopt a final budget by June 30.

The proposed final budget, approved by the district in May, called for $55.99 million in total spending.

Before Tuesday’s vote, director Mary Figura made an extended case for approving the increase, taking direct aim at criticism the board has faced over special education hiring. About one-third of the district’s students — roughly 650 of them — are special education students, each with an individually tailored education program, she said.

“These students have individual education programs written specifically for each student,” Figura, the board’s vice president, added. “That means they have an education program with specifically designed instructions, with accommodations and modifications designed specially for that student. IEPs are a legal document.”

Past failures to staff those programs adequately had already cost the district money, she argued.

“If we don’t monitor them and stay in compliance, we face lawsuits and pay out money for compulsory education, because we didn’t have enough special education staff in the past for monitoring and overseeing these documents,” Figura said. “We were out of compliance, and we have paid for this in lawsuits, which costs much more than hiring the one special education coordinator.”

The district has also hired a billing coordinator to recover costs for special education services.

“We have hired an access coordinator to recoup money for services being offered to our students. The coordinator salary is being paid through these funds,” Figura said.

Beyond special education, she warned that failing to act now would eventually force cuts to programs and classrooms.

“Without the tax increase, our fund balance will decrease and will continue to decrease,” Figura said. “Once we deplete our money in the general fund and that fund goes under what the state requires to keep in there, our credit rating decreases. If we don’t do this now, there will need to be drastic changes for the future, and I’m not saying this as a threat, I’m saying this as a fact. We will need to look at increasing class sizes, cutting athletics and extracurricular activities, and anything that is not mandated by Pa. school code.”

Figura also acknowledged the difficulty of reaching Tuesday’s vote.

“This board does not take raising taxes lightly,” she said. “You could tell from our last meeting — we couldn’t even determine what kind of tax increase we want. We spent an extensive amount of time talking about how to save money, how to make things better for our students.”

Following the budget approval, Figura called for Superintendent Robert Presley to form a financial stakeholder committee for the coming year.

“We need to look at how we can keep the opportunities for our students at least status quo or better for our students, and hopefully not raise taxes like we needed to over the past two years, because our past boards did not look ahead for the future of this district,” she said.

Strubinger opposed the increase, calling instead for a Carbon County-wide property reassessment and arguing the current formula shortchanges Jim Thorpe compared with neighboring districts.

“It’s time for the county to reassess,” he said. “We don’t need to be putting our taxes up by ourselves. It’s been 20 years since the county reassessed. There’s lots of properties out there still getting a break.”

Strubinger also called on the district’s state legislators to fight for equitable basic education funding.

“Jim Thorpe School District — what they get for basic education funding is ridiculous,” he said. “It’s about time our legislators make sure that everybody gets the same amount per student in the state. As far as raising taxes, forget it. We don’t need to raise taxes, we need to have reassessment.”

The board also approved separately the homestead and farmstead tax exclusion for the 2026-27 tax year, which passed 7-0. Under that program, the Pennsylvania Department of Education will distribute $1,291,865.89 to the district, funded through state gambling tax revenues, to be divided equally among the district’s 4,159 approved homestead and one approved farmstead property, reducing the real estate tax assessment on each qualifying home.