Tamaqua Area School District has received a $276,000 tax claim settlement, its share of an increased tax reassessment levied on BET Lehigh Real Estate LLC of Horsham, in 2010. District administrators formally accepted the monies during the board meeting Tuesday.

In 2010, BET paid $11 million for lands formerly owned by Lehigh Coal & Navigation, which had filed for bankruptcy. The coal lands are located in Schuylkill and Carbon counties.BET first appealed the increase in taxes at the Schuylkill County Board of Assessment, which ruled against the company. BET pursued the matter in the Court of Common Pleas, Schuylkill County, and in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.The case was argued in Commonwealth Court in March 2013, and Judge Robert "Robin" Simpson issued a decision in April 2013.BET had argued that the properties were being taxed twice, for property value and for mining income. Simpson disagreed, finding that BET failed to present independent expert valuation of the parcels.In other action, the school district hired Kyle Dunkelberger of Tamaqua as supervisor of buildings and grounds, at $44,000 a year. He's the brother of Ken Dunkelberger, who had been employed by the district as director of technology. Former Director of Facilities Arthur Oakes Jr. tendered his resignation during the board's January meeting; he had accepted a position at Northwestern Lehigh School District.Tamaqua administrators have created a new position, chief operations officer, which will be held by Ken Dunkelberger. He'll have the same responsibilites he had as director of technology, and also assume additional responsibilities, such as overseeing the district's computerized HVAC systems.His salary increase has not yet been finalized.The school district will begin budget meetings next week. During the finance committee report, committee chairman Dan Schoener presented the 2014/2015 budgets for the Schuylkill Technology Center and the Schuylkill Intermediate Unit #29.After the meeting, Superintendent Carol Makuta said that the technology center budget shows a slight increase, while the IU shows a slight decrease. As a result, those figures will have little impact on the Tamaqua School District budget, she said.