Lehighton Area School District’s Annual Financial Report for the 2019-20 school year should be completed by March 15.

Business Administrator Edward Rarick said during a finance committee meeting Monday night that the district has been working with the Pennsylvania Department of Education on extensions for the report, originally due in October.

“It’s 98% complete at this point,” Rarick said. “The AFR is showing a fund balance increase of $159,000 for 2019-20, but had it not been for the sale of schools playing into that, it would have been a decrease of $656,368. Pending some work with the auditors this week, that AFR will be ready for March 15 and then can be loaded to the website for review.”

Director David Bradley has repeatedly criticized the district in public meetings for not meeting the original October deadline for AFR submission.

Board President Larry Stern said multiple factors played into the delay, including the transition from one business administrator to another. Rarick was hired in November after Patricia Denicola announced in July she was leaving Lehighton to take the chief financial officer spot in the Boyertown Area School District. In between, Joe Surridge served as interim business administrator.

“I appreciate the work Mr. Rarick is doing with PDE in the process to get the AFR finalized,” Stern said.

Rarick said he is working on a 2021-22 budget presentation that should be completed by the beginning to middle of April.

“To date, I have met with representatives from building and grounds, athletics, special education, curriculum and grants, administrators from all three of our schools, and our insurance carrier, he said. “A lot of work has been done on the budget to this point.”

Lehighton’s 2020-21 budget included a 1.76-mill tax increase generating $580,376; a voluntary pay freeze by administrators saving $59,093, the elimination of the technology director and assistant business manager administrative positions, saving $154,189, the elimination of certain extracurricular programs due to COVID-19 concerns, saving $84,614, and the elimination of nonmandated transportation due to COVID-19 concerns, saving $992,810.

The district later added up to $800,000 back in the budget for student transportation.

“I think we need to first look at what we really need from a mandate perspective and then talk about some things beyond what is mandated that we can do,” Stern said. “It’s all part of an effort to get us on a more solid financial footing.”