Lehighton Area School District board of directors is scheduled to vote tonight on a resolution that would ratify, confirm and readopt the 2026-27 general fund budget and tax resolution, including a 3.5% property tax increase, that the board originally adopted on June 22.

The special meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the district board room at 1000 Union Street.

The resolution states that resident Ryan Bowman raised objections after the June 22 vote, challenging the district’s compliance with the 10-day public notice requirement, the 20-day public inspection requirement, and a theory involving a “thirty (30) day ‘material revision’” standard, all under Section 687 of the Pennsylvania Public School Code.

District Solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik, of McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC, “conducted a thorough legal review of the budget adoption process and the objections raised, and provided his legal analysis and recommendations to the Board,” the resolution states.

Without conceding that the original process was deficient, the board’s resolution says Monday’s vote would serve “to ratify, confirm, and readopt the budget following proper notice and advertisement, thereby curing any arguable procedural deficiency and rendering such objection moot.”

Budget timeline

According to the resolution, the proposed 2026-27 budget was prepared in the state’s uniform PDE 2028 format on May 21 and posted to the district’s BoardDocs system for public inspection the next day, May 22. The board approved that proposed budget May 26 on a vote of 6-2.

An updated version of the budget document was issued June 19 The board adopted the final budget June 22 on a roll-call vote of 6-3, with Tim Tkach, Lori Frey, Denise Hartley, William Howland, Heather Neff and Alex Matika in favor and Joy Beers, David Bradley and Jeremy Glaush opposed, according to the resolution.

Before that vote, Bradley moved to table the budget for at least 30 days, citing concerns about the process. Solicitor Beth Shore, who attended the June 22 meeting by Google Meet, told the board that a preliminary vote approving the proposed budget “is not a statutory prerequisite for the budget to qualify as a ‘proposed budget’ under the Code,” the resolution states.

The budget calls for $51.51 million in total expenditures against $51.44 million in revenues, and sets the real estate tax rate at 53.6751 mills, an increase of 0.9 mills, representing $53.68 per $1,000 of assessed valuation,” according to the resolution’s operative provisions.

Homestead exclusion

Tonight’s agenda also lists a homestead and farmstead exclusion resolution as an action item. That resolution states approximately $2.08 million is available for real estate tax reduction for the 2026-27 school year. The district has 4,263 approved homesteads and 27 approved farmsteads, according to the resolution. Divided evenly, the reduction comes to a maximum of $496.99 per approved homestead or farmstead.