ADAMS TWP — Mars Area School Board approved the district’s proposed $58.88 million 2023-24 general fund budget Tuesday, May 9, including a 4.15-mill real estate tax increase.

“I think that it’s important to note that no one takes something like this lightly; nobody wants to see a tax increase,” board member Megan Lenz said. “This is the result of an expanded growth in this community, and by doing this, we’re pretty much meeting the bare minimum of what we need to keep the (district) running.”

Lenz said the proposed increase would cost the average homeowner in the district an additional $10 per month.

Superintendent Mark Gross agreed, saying the increase from 101.376 to 105.526 mills was necessary to meet the demands of the expanding district.

“Our district, unfortunately, is just outgrowing itself,” he said.

Board member Sallie Wick said, as a “fiscal conservative,” that the increase was a difficult but necessary decision.

“The goal is for this administration to develop a long-range strategic plan for the district as we move forward and address this continued, expected growth,” Wick said, “so that we can at least keep everyone involved and invested in understanding what the needs are and manage them as fiscally conservatively as we can.”

Board member Anthony De Pretis cited a statistic from last week’s budget presentation by business manager Debbie Brandstetter, showing that the (district) has grown from averaging seven new students per year to 70 in the last five years.

“I think that’s the important part to understand, that regardless of the growth, a tenfold increase in students, you have to have the staff to be able to educate the students,” he said. “This doesn’t necessarily reduce class size; it just maintains where we’re at. This allows us to add, between this year and next year, 16 positions just to maintain where we’re at.”

De Pretis also addressed the recent enrollment and capacity study as highlighting the district’s growing need for staff and infrastructure.

“Again, not taken lightly, we will be as fiscally conservative as we can, but we do have to have enough classrooms with enough staff to educate the children,” De Pretis said. “There is more to come on this research project and the committee will have many opportunities for the public to be involved, but as a community, we also need to provide an amount of resources to educate students.”

Brandstetter added that the majority of the district’s funding comes from taxpayers, at 72%, and board member Nicole Thurner likened any other solution to a temporary band-aid.

“You have to do it at some point because of the growth and the issues that we’re experiencing,” Thurner said. “Hopefully next year we have the extra revenue that we’re exploring where we don’t have to do this.”

Lenz emphasized that the increase was meant to provide teachers for the growing student body, and that it would not be used for building athletic facilities.

“For 16 years, there’s been one tax increase in the school district, and when you consider inflation and the cost of all the contracted services in addition to the growth of this community,” Lenz said, “it’s important to remember that things cost more money than they did 16 years ago.”

The board passed the proposed budget 8-1, with president John Kennedy against.

Brandstetter told the public that the proposed budget would be available for review this week and that the final vote on it would come at the board’s June 13 meeting.