The Pleasant Valley School Board approved the district’s contributions to the Monroe Career & Technical Institute and Colonial Intermediate Unit #20 at the meeting Thursday evening.

The district’s contribution to MCTI for the 2021-2022 school year is $1,971,353. It is 22.094% of their budget, which is down slightly from the previous year when it was 23.031%. Overall enrollment for MCTI continues to increase.

Dennis Virga, the director of MCTI, presented their budget to the school board and said they will not need to raise the contribution, because they were able to meet their budget needs. The total proposed budget for MCTI is $9,927,843, which is up $48,782.

“The budget is pretty straightforward. It’s good news. Diane (Serfass, the business manager at MCTI) and I worked pretty hard on trying to be cognizant of what all of the school districts are facing right now with COVID and some of the financial concerns that come with it,” he said.

He explained that MCTI reduced expenses two ways. Last year, its hotel and marketing instructor retired. They kept the course but filled the position with a teacher who was an academic integration specialist. The assistance that was part of that department has been moved to other departments such as the career and transition counselor. This was a savings of $135,847, between salary and benefits.

“She’s doing a phenomenal job,” he said. “We’re comfortable moving forward without that position.”

MCTI also was able to save $25,756 by switching from a three-year lease to a four-year lease on the Chromebooks, and saved $5,000 in supplies due to a grant and $5,000 in capital equipment.

Virga told the board that MCTI was able to complete most of its capital improvement projects and remain debt-free. There are still four projects to do, but the cost is covered. The past three years, the school district has allowed MCTI to keep the vocational subsidy given by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to help cover the costs of the projects. This year, MCTI is able to send the subsidy back to the school district, which is $670,729.

School board Director Susan Kresge thanked them and said, “They have done an outstanding job getting us through these very large projects that we’ve needed to do at MCTI.”

“You do tremendous work with our Pleasant Valley students in all of your program areas,” said school board President Donna Yozwiak.

The contribution to CIU 20 is $27,100.26. CIU 20 did not speak at the meeting. Their proposed budget totals $3,750,550.