BUTLER TWP — The Butler Area School District board gave preliminary approval to the budget for the 2022-2023 school year Monday, with expenditures more than $106 million with no increase to taxes or the current area millage rate of 104.03.

The approved budget of $106,471,862 has about $1 million more in expenditures compared to the 2021-2022 school year budget, which had $105,962,246 in expenditures.

The budget has estimated revenues equal to its expenditures. The biggest portion of revenues comes from local real estate taxes, in the amount of about $41 million. The revenues are also rounded out by about $322,000 in American Rescue Plan and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund money.

The district is also accounting for about $26 million from the basic education funding formula, about $7 million from the state share of retirement contributions, nearly $7 million from proportional tax assessments, about $4 million in special education funds and about $2 million from the pupil transportation subsidy.

Brian White, district superintendent, said some positions are being eliminated with the closing of Butler Middle School, but no employees are being furloughed. White also said the district is hiring two new elementary teachers and filling a cooperative education position that is designed to keep track of students earning credits on job sites.

Heather Bonzo, district director of finance and operations, said the biggest increases to the budget are inflation-related, including the increase in property values leading to higher property insurance costs. The cost of cyber insurance has also risen, she said.

White said at the previous school board meeting that administrators once again chose not to make large cuts to budget line items to make the number look better. He said Monday that continuing to pay necessary costs is all in the name of bettering education for the district’s students.

The proposed budget will be made available for public inspection using Form PDE-2028, as per a requirement by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

The district also will host a public hearing at 4 p.m. May 31 at Butler Intermediate High School regarding the proposed closing of Butler Middle School, which White said is a meeting required by law. The board will not vote at the meeting; White said it is an informative session that allows community members to make comments on the plan.

White said the closing of the middle school is expected to save the district some money, primarily because teachers from the school are transitioning to other open positions around the district, eliminating the need to hire more staff.

Additionally, district administrators have decided not to purchase modular classrooms to house ninth-grade students while the senior high school addition is under construction. Instead, the district will utilize vacant classrooms in the high school, lease one classroom from Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School and use the completed classrooms in the addition as they become available.

“The hope is... to release classrooms as they are inspected by the building inspector,” White said. “We don’t necessarily have to wait for the entire project to be done, but as rooms come online then we’ll move kids back into those spaces.”

The board also approved hiring Aramark to manage food service operations for the 2022-2023 school year. According to Bonzo, Aramark’s administrative fee is a flat rate of $30,000 for the year, and the company charges $.09 per meal, which the district will pay monthly.

Aramark will replace the Nutrition Group, which has been the district's food supply contractor for six years. Bonzo said the Nutrition Group charged an administrative fee of about $54,000 a year, with a management fee of about $31,000.

Under the new contract, all union food service general kitchen workers and cooks employed by the district will continue their employment with the district, and new employees will be employed by Aramark. Aramark will offer a benefits package that includes a 6% increase to current hourly wages, according to meeting agenda documents.