North Hills School Board Approves Budget & Tax Increase

The approved a Monday night, which includes a slight tax increase for the 2012-13 school year. 

Homeowners whose property is valued at $100,000 will pay an extra $35 in school real estate taxes. 

Overall, the budget totals $68,637,206, an increase of 2.9 percent from the current year. The millage rate will increase 1.7 percent to 21.26 mills.

The vote was 6-3, with directors Thomas J. Baker, Jeff Meyer, and Lou Nudi voting against the spending plan. 

While this year’s tax increase is relatively minor when in other school districts, finance chairman Edward M. Wielgus indicated financial storm clouds were on the horizon.

“We are on course financially that can not be sustained. We can’t tax our way out of this,” he said. “We are staring down at some very serious cuts, if things don’t begin to change and problems of pensions and things of that nature are not addressed, we will be facing a budget deficit of 9.7 million dollars five years from now.”

Wielgus said costs; particularly employee pensions that are out of the district’s control will skyrocket in the next few years.

“If you don’t raise taxes, you better come up with some serious ideas on how you’re going to reduce the costs and maintain what you want to maintain,” he warned his colleagues. “We cannot tax our way out of this, it’s just mathematically impossible.”

“Realistically, if you don’t want to make $10 million dollars in cuts five years from now, you can’t stop raising taxes now,” argued David Hall, North Hills Finance and Operations Director. “We all know we could make a change to the budget this year and not have to raise taxes this year, but you never get to make that decision up in the future,” he said.

Before casting her yes vote, Director Kathy Reid pointed out that North Hills has the seventh lowest millage rate in the 42 suburban school districts in Allegheny County.

“Broken down into days, the cost of this year’s tax increase is less than a cost of cup of coffee,” she said. “This year new initiatives are being implemented which are all educational. We are able to do this without cutting programs, furloughing teachers, and implementing pay as you play and other important programs we have in this district. I can not vote no for political reasons.”

Next year’s new initiatives include:

• New math curriculum for grades K-6
• New science and family & consumer science courses
• New textbooks and online resources for world languages
• Revisions to the literacy arts curriculum and materials for grades 7-9
• Expansion of the Online Academy @ North Hills to elementary grades
• Integration of iPad technologies in all elementary schools
• Implementation of the STAR benchmark assessment in reading and math for grades 3-8
• Implementation of career-focused academies at the senior high school

The budget also includes a $335,000 increase for medical insurance for district employees and more than $1.2 million in mandated retirement costs.

The board also approved, in a 9-0 vote, to allow qualified homeowners in the district to take advantage of a Homestead/Farmstead property tax deduction of $122.75. To qualify, the property owner must be an owner-occupied residence and must have filed a homestead exemption application with Allegheny County by March 1 of this year.

In other action, the board approved the sale of the former Northway Elementary School on Browns Lane to LRC Development Company of Akron, Ohio for $2,460,000.

The meeting was standing room only in the opening minutes, as the board recognized the undefeated team and members of the , which qualified for the state championships.

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