Good news for residents who live in the Pleasant Valley School District ... no tax increase.

The school board voted 8-0 to approve the 2014-2015 General Fund budget at $96,983,979. Robert Serfass was absent from the meeting.Nearly $6 million from the fund balance will be used to fill in budget gaps for the next school year with the board and administration promising to continue to look at ways to trim costs.It is the third consecutive year without a real estate millage increase.The millage will remain the same as last year at 146.016. On a home with an assessed value of $25,000, taxes would be $3,650.The budget shows an increase of $1,956,867 from last year's budget of $95,027,112 with nearly $6 million in the fund balance used to balance the budget.Susan Famularo, PVSD's business manager says two of the biggest increase costs for the district is $246,000 for charter school students and $1.6 million for mandated employer retirement contributions.The board wants the taxpayers to know that the final budget will not affect the current programming for its students, even though there is a continued shortfall in state funding."We took a historical look at the last years and saw we haven't spent about $3 million of the budget each year. In 2019, our debt service (mortgage) which is $9.5 million annually, will be paid off. We'll realize a big savings after that," says Carole Geary, PVSD superintendent.She adds that they have been trying to be creative in their approach to cut costs while not putting the district in jeopardy.Some of those actions include reconfiguring the district, refinancing bonds, subcontracting transportation, condensing and eliminating bus runs, securing grant monies, increasing ACCESS reimbursements, creating the PV Cyber Academy, creating the

I.C.E. program, closing three elementary schools, eliminating staff positions (more than 100 professional, administrative and support staff positions over the past six years), using in-house trainers for staff development, instituting a four-day summer workweek to save on utility costs, in-house printing, joining purchasing consortiums, stressing energy conservation and reducing paper consumption. All of which has helped the district create a financial situation where funds are available to lessen the impact of the continued shortfall in state funding.In a prepared statement from the board, it states, " ... it is important to note that a sustained deficiency in state funding will eventually cause great financial hardship on the school district and will seriously affect the education received by the children of Pleasant Valley."