Palmerton Area School District remains on pace to approve next year's spending plan with a 1-mill increase.

Business Manager Diane Serfass briefly discussed the 2014-15 budget with the school board at a workshop session on Tuesday, two weeks before final budget adoption is scheduled.Serfass said next year's spending plan calls for a 1-mill increase, and includes a new Ready to Learn Block Grant in the amount of $292,821 that has been proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett. However, that funding is not yet confirmed, Serfass noted.Even with that, the district would still have to utilize $471,389 from its fund balance, Serfass said. Salaries (38 percent) and employee benefits (23 percent) comprise the biggest expenses for the district's budget.Next year's spending plan includes an additional high-school guidance counselor; two teachers at S.S. Palmer Elementary; a half-time high school science teacher; technology improvements; new wrestling mats; new warm-ups for track and field; the reimplementation of a band adviser at the junior high/senior high complex; and six summer maintenance workers to work four days a week, seven hours per day.Last month, the board, on a 5-4 vote, approved next year's proposed final budget with a 1-mill increase, but only after five separate roll call votes were taken.The $28.6 spending plan would raise the millage rate from 51.44 mills to 52.44 mills, and is an increase of $435,816, or 1.55 percent, over the 2013-14 budget.If the budget is adopted with a 1-mill increase, a person with a home valued at $90,000, which would be assessed at $45,000, would pay $45 more in property taxes to the district next year.Similarly, a person with a home valued at $140,000, and assessed at $70,000, would pay $70 more, while a person with a home valued at $200,000, and assessed at $100,000, would pay $100 more.The district's Act 1 index was set at 2.8 percent for the 2014-15 school year, which equates to 1.44 mills, or a total of a possible millage of 52.88 mills.That means the total millage the district could have increased under the Act 1 index was 1.9948 mills.In February, the board approved a proposed $28.7 million budget, which would result in a 2.8 percent, or 1.44-mill increase in the property tax rate.Final budget adoption is scheduled when the board meets at 6:30 p.m. June 17.