Jim Thorpe Area School Board failed to adopt its 2026-27 final budget Wednesday night, voting instead to table the spending plan after members said they could not agree on how large a tax increase should be considered. The district must now schedule an additional meeting before June 30, the state deadline for school boards to adopt a final budget.

“We can’t agree on it,” Director Pearl Sheckler said of the tax increase, before requesting to table the item.

The tax rate was left blank on the printed agenda itself, which listed the motion only as a vote to “Approve the 26-27 District Budget with a ___% tax increase as presented.”

The board voted 6-0, with three members absent, to table the motion.

A separate vote to approve the homestead and farmstead tax exclusion for the coming year was also tabled.

“We have to table that, too, because it’s contingent upon the budget,” Sheckler said.

The latest budget proposal the board was set to consider called for $55,996,956 in total spending against $53,100,616 in projected revenue, according to the proposed final budget document presented to the board earlier this month. To help close that gap, administrators had proposed raising the real estate tax rate to 49.28 mills from 47.34 mills, an increase of 1.94 mills, or 4.1% — the maximum allowed under the state’s Act 1 index without seeking a referendum or exception.

“We can go to the allowable increase of 4.1%, which will generate just under $1.3 million in new tax dollars and decrease our shortfall to about $2.9 million,” Brian Off, who presented the figures, said at a June 10 committee meeting where the budget was last previewed. Even with the increase, the district’s unassigned fund balance was projected to fall to $618,113 by next June, or about 1.10% of total spending, according to the budget document.

District resident Jesse Walck addressing the board during public comment, before the vote to table, acknowledged the difficulty of the decision facing members.

“I know you have a difficult decision with that,” Walck said of the deficit and potential tax increase. “I know that is not this board’s making, so I do appreciate you considering maintaining the staff and services that we do have, and I know it’s a necessary evil, so to speak.”

At the June 10 committee meeting, director Mary Figura lobbied for the increase, saying years of flat tax rates had left the district without options.

“We are going to be in trouble in three years if we don’t raise taxes,” she said. “We’re going to be hanging on by a thread, because the government isn’t giving us any money, and we’re losing money constantly.”

No revised tax figure or budget total was presented Wednesday before the vote to table, and the board had not announced a date for the additional meeting required to adopt a final spending plan ahead of the state deadline.