The North Hills School District Board of Education unanimously approved the final budget for the 2022-23 school year at its committee meeting with action held Thursday, June 2 in the LGI Room at the North Hills Middle School.
The budget has revenues and expenditures of $91,612,966 and includes a real estate tax increase of .66 mills taking the rate from 19.04 to 19.70 mills. Homeowners with a home valued at $150,000 will pay $8.25 more per month or $99 more per year.
At $91.6 million, the budget is more than $3 million greater than last year’s budget of $88.3 million. The main driver of the budget increase is increased enrollment and necessary personnel additions.
The 2022-23 budget includes:
- Learning support teacher at the high school
- This is needed due to enrollment increase in special education.
- Learning support teacher at the middle school
- This is needed due to enrollment increase in special education.
- First grade teacher
- This is needed due to increased first grade sections at McIntyre Elementary.
- Fourth grade teacher
- This is needed due to increased fourth grade sections at McIntyre Elementary.
- Biology/chemistry teacher at the high school
- This is needed due to increased students at the high school.
- Assistant principal at the middle school
- This permanently adds a second assistant principal at the middle school, a position that was always intended to be added when sixth grade moved to the middle school but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Certified School Nurse
- Student Assistance Program (SAP) counselor for elementary
- We currently have just one SAP counselor serving 2,137 students across four buildings. An additional counselor will provide much needed assistance and reduce the ratio to 1,069 across two buildings for each counselor.
- Student Assistance Program (SAP) counselor for high school
- We currently have just one SAP counselor serving 1,377. An additional counselor will reduce the ratio to 689 students for each counselor.
The budget uses $1,088,000 from our COVID-19 relief American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) Fund. A similar amount is projected to be used in the 2023-24 budget with the remaining funding used in 2024-25.
The budget does not use the remaining $677,548 in the district’s Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) fund balance. The fund balance was started over a decade ago as a savings account, of sorts, to smooth out the rapid increases in the state’s mandated PSERS contribution over the years. The funds, however, are dwindling, and while not unexpected, the school board and district will need to consider revenue increases and/or cost savings when that time comes. The 2021-22 budget included nearly $1.2 million from PSERS fund balance.
NHSD Director of Finance Jerry Muth gave a final overview of the budget at Thursday’s meeting. A PDF of his presentation can be viewed here.
The 2022-23 budget can be viewed in its entirety here.
Also on Thursday night, the board approved homestead and farmstead exclusion real estate tax assessment reductions as detailed here.