Pleasant Valley School Board approved a proposed budget Thursday that has no tax increase.

"The job of preparing a budget for the school year starts in September of the prior year," Superintendent Carole Geary said."We advertise our preliminary budget in January."Geary and district Business Manager Susan Famularo presented a slide presentation at Thursday's school board meeting outlining the process that the district goes through to come up with its yearly general budget as well as all of the considerations that went into the budget that was proposed and approved that evening."It's all about those kiddos you see walking in the doors," Geary said. "They are what it is all about."Geary noted her concern with state funding. The state budget has not been finalized and the school funding is still unsettled.Rep. Jack Rader, R-176, was present at the meeting."I know that you are concerned about the state funding," Rader said. "With the governor's current budget proposal (they) will not run out of money. You should see at least what you had last year, maybe more."Rader also said he recently co-sponsored a bill regarding the funding of charter schools and that it would hopefully reduce some of the strain on Pennsylvania school districts.Geary said she attributed some of the reduced cost to declining enrollment over the past few years but stressed that the district has proactively reduced costs through closing three schools and reduction in staff at the professional, support and administrative levels.These reductions, she said, were mainly through retirement, though a few were the result of furloughs. In seven years the district has cut 110 positions.The financial discussion on the budget was headed up by Famularo, who pointed out that the proposed budget included no tax increase."This is the fourth year without a tax increase. Sixty-two percent of our funding comes from local sources, 37 percent from the state and only 1 percent from the federal government," Famularo said."We are passing this budget in good faith that we are going to get the state funding," Geary said. "Without state funding, residents will see a millage increases over the next four years."Now that the final proposal has been approved, the public has a month to review and is invited to comment at either of the May school board meetings.By state law the budget must be approved in June and the board proposes to adopt the budget at the June 11 meeting.