More than two-thirds of the nine school districts in Butler County have proposed tax increases to cover rising expenses expected next school year.

Seven of districts have either proposed or passed plans to raise taxes, with final budget approvals required by July 1. Districts proposing a tax hike include Butler Area School District, Seneca Valley School District, Mars Area School District, Moniteau School District, Allegheny-Clarion Valley School District, Freeport Area School District and Slippery Rock Area School District.

Knoch School District and Karns City Area School District both kept their tax rate the same for next year.

School districts are funded through property taxes, and homeowners pay based on the assessed value of their home.

The highest millage rate for a school district in Butler County for the 2023-24 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is Freeport, which will have a tax rate of 170.3 mills. That's followed by Seneca Valley, which will have a tax rate of 133 mills.

The lowest rate in Butler County is Allegheny-Clarion Valley, where the tax rate will be 79.9 mills after the hike. Moniteau looks to be the second-lowest with a rate of 93.88 mills.

Those positions held true in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, prior to the tax increases and proposed tax increases.

The tax rates are reflected in mills. One mill is equivalent to one-tenth of a cent, or one-thousandth of a dollar.

Janet Mentel, director of the Butler County Tax Claim Bureau, used a property with an assessed value of $150,000 and millage rate of 5 mills to demonstrate the tax rate, saying that in that scenario, the property owner would pay $750 per year.

“It's always harder for everyone to pay school tax compared to township or municipal,” Mentel said, indicating that millage rates for school districts are higher than those for municipalities and the county. The county in 2022 collected 27.626 mills in property tax.

Butler County uses a common level ratio factor to adjust assessed values of homes, which can be found on the county’s tax map, to approximate market values for mortgage lenders and others to consider. The common level ratio factor of 14.08 is effective July 1.

Butler superintendent Brian White said the highest annual cost for the district is always salaries and benefits, and suggested personnel is the highest expense of any school district.

“Our biggest cost is people,” White said. “If we’re overstaffed, our budget’s out of whack. If we’re understaffed, we’re not operating correctly. It’s a balancing act.”

Homeowners in the Butler district could see a tax increase of 2.5 mills, which would be effective beginning in July.

“We try to operate as efficiently as possible,” White said. “We’re trying to control costs that are noneducational; that’s why anything like utilities that does not impact the classroom, we’re trying to reduce our expenditures. We make sure class size is appropriate, while at the same time not running classes that are not serving enough students.”

White said the challenges facing school districts, including Butler, related to budgeting are mainly with fluctuating state and federal allocations, as well as unfunded mandates, which districts have to follow.

Below is a roundup of the school districts’ final or proposed budgets.

According to superintendent David McDeavitt, homeowners who reside in Butler County’s portion of A-C Valley saw millage increase from 78.92 last year to 79.90 this year. The rate increase will go into effect July 1.

A home in the district with an approximate market value of $100,000 would bring in $1,124.99 in taxes next year.

The school board approved a $17.18 million budget on June 15.

McDeavitt said outside cyber school costs are the primary issue associated with the budget. He said A-C Valley is paying anywhere from $750,000 to $1 million a year for roughly 39 students to go to cyber charter schools.

A-C Valley is in four counties, and McDeavitt said their cyber costs have outpaced their ability to raise taxes by 153%.

In addition, he said the fair funding formula is not fair to small rural school districts with a low ELL (English language learners) and acute poverty. He said all the new money is diverted to schools districts with higher ELL and acute poverty.

McDeavitt said the district’s American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding will be spent at the end of the 2023-24 school year to cover the cost of a math coach, social worker and other supports to help with student mental health needs.

The proposed budget at Butler Area School District is seeing an increase of about $4 million compared to last year, going from $106.52 million to $110.43 million, and adding a tax increase of 2.95 mills, bringing the millage rate to 106.98 mills. White said this amounts to an increase of about $147 annually for a median home.

This means that next year, a home with an approximate market value of $100,000 would bring in $1,506 annually.

The school board approved a budget proposal at a meeting May 22 and it is now up for public review before the board will vote to approve the final budget June 26.

White said that despite expenses being up this coming year, administrators are focusing on funding educational needs, while trying to keep other expenditures low.

White also said some expenses have remained steady over the years, like employee salaries and health care.

Among significant increases, were transportation costs, which grew from a projected $65,000 to $258,000 in the coming budget. Next year, the cost is projected to be $275,000.

In addition to inflationary pressures, White said district administrators have been looking into getting new safety equipment in schools, following an assessment by state police. He said administrators are looking into the cost of installing doors that lock from the inside of a classroom, window coverings for ground-level classrooms, boards that will stop cars from going onto sidewalks and replacement weapon-detection systems.

In a budget presentation to the school board in May, White showed the amount of money the district spends per student compared to other districts. The chart showed that, with the budget line items taken into account, Butler school district spends about $55,676 per student annually.

“We have the lowest amount of resources per child of any district in Butler County, even though we probably have the highest concentration of need,” White said.

Heather Bonzo, director of finance and operations for the district, said the proposed tax increase would balance the proposed budget, but the state budget would also give more information on how much money the district will be working with.

“The basic education subsidy from the state is 26% of the district’s revenue,” Bonzo said.

“Real estate tax collection is 39% of the district’s revenue and the retirement subsidy reimbursement, which is also from the state, amounts to 7% of the district’s funding.”

White emphasized that the budget could change before the school board makes the final vote, but he wanted an expenditures number that was feasible and funded student needs.

“This is our best proposed final budget we have at this point,” White said.

Butler County residents will see taxes raised by 5.55 mills from a previous 164.75 mills to 170.30 mills for the 2023-24 school year.

A home valued at $100,000 in Butler County’s portion of the district would bring in $2,398 in taxes next year.

Armstrong County’s millage rate was previously 67.01 and will be raised to 69.02 mills, according to Bradley Walker, director of finance and operations for Freeport Area School District.

The rate increases go into effect July 1.

Walker provided examples of what that would look like annually for average properties in both counties.

He said an average Butler County homestead property has an assessed value of $22,140, which equates to an increase of $122.88 annually. Likewise, in Armstrong County, the average homestead property assessed value of $33,975 equates to an increase of $68.29 per year.

“Contributing factors to increasing costs pertain to mandated out-of-district and/or cyber charter tuition costs, transportation, debt service and contractual staffing obligations,” Walker said.

Additionally, he said all remaining COVID-19 ARP and ESSER funds the district was provided have been allocated.

The Karns City Area School District did not increase its tax rate in its 2023-24 budget. The millage rate in the district is 98.050, which supports a budget with $25.89 million in expenditures.

This means that a home with an approximate market value at $100,000 in the Karns City district will bring in $1,381 per year.

“The board and administration has worked hard to create a budget that is balanced and addresses our school district’s needs,” said superintendent Eric Ritzert.

The remainder of the district’s COVID relief funding is being used to help with the HVAC system at Chicora Elementary School, which is in the early stages of construction on a new addition.

Despite renovations and other projects, the Knoch School District proposed a budget for 2023-24 that does not include a tax rate increase. The budget was finalized at the school board’s monthly meeting June 14.

The district’s millage rate remains at 94.275 mills, and the budget has been set at just over $38.5 million. This means that home with an approximate market value at $100,000 in the Knoch district will bring in $1,327 in taxes.

As with most school districts, the bulk of the money in the Knoch's budget goes toward staff salaries. In more recent years, however, rising inflation has also taken its toll on Knoch's balance, as schools have had to pay more for utilities such as gas and power.

“The utility prices have gone through the roof,” said superintendent David Foley. “They're coming back down now, but that has been an additional expense that we've had to address in the budget.”

Funding from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund helped to make up for losses sustained during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and fund necessary improvements to usher in distance learning. Soon, however, that money will dry up.

“We spent a lot of our ESSER money on purchasing technology that was necessary for students and staff to work from home,” Foley said. “A lot of that money went specifically to Chromebooks.”

Other ESSER funding went to cleaning supplies to help sanitize school grounds, as well as adding positions in the faculty to deal with mental health issues caused by the pandemic.

To make up for decreased federal COVID-19 funding, Knoch has been forced to reshuffle its staff from school to school, a process made even more complicated as the district plans to add a full-day kindergarten for the 2023-24 school year.

“We have been very smart with our money regarding how we utilize our staff,” Foley said. “We've moved some secondary teachers over to the elementary side … so that we can maintain our current elementary programming. We've been able to balance the budget by making smart staffing and just being careful in how we're spending.”

A further complication in how Knoch manages its money is the ongoing and planned renovation of both the high school and the nearby athletics stadium. For the high school renovation, the estimated cost now sits between $38 million and $42 million as of February, while it was originally budgeted for $34 million.

Despite this, Knoch did not raise taxes to make up for the rising costs of the renovation project, as there was still enough money leftover in the fund balance to make up for the rising prices. Foley said there will be a special board meeting to solicit bids for the renovation sometime in the next month.

Mars Area School District has approved a 4.15 mill real estate tax increase, and a proposed budget with about $58.8 million in expenditures. The increase from 101.376 to 105.526 mills will go into effect July 1.

This means that next year, a home with an approximate market value at $100,000 would bring in $1,486 annually.

“The tax increase is mainly due to our growth — we’ve got to hire more teachers, and we’ve got to have more space to house our students,” said superintendent Mark Gross. “And, again, we receive so little outside of these taxes.”

The increase includes salaries for 16 new district employees to meet that growth as well as a 6.5% increase in employee benefits. This comes in addition to the anticipated capital improvement projects at the Mars Area Primary Center and Mars Area Elementary School.

“That’s really the main focus, is trying to get ahead of being able to finance the renovation projects due to our growth,” Gross said.

Gross also said that, while the district maintains funds from COVID federal relief funding, most of the money is directed toward mental health, social-emotional learning and academics.

“We actually have a committee — a federal programs committee — that’s comprised of community members, parents, teachers to students,” Gross said. “Spending those moneys, we bring the committee together and get a consensus on what they believe we should be utilizing the money for.”

For about 70% of district property owners, the new millage rate amounts to an about $10 per month increase.

The Moniteau School District board has approved a tax increase of 3.50 mills, to 97.38 mills. The previous rate was 93.88 mills. The rate increase will go into effect July 1.

This means that next year, a home with an approximate market value at $100,000 would bring in $1,371 annually.

The additional amount paid in taxes on that $100,000 home will be nearly $50 per year, which is less than a dollar per week, according to superintendent Aubrie Schnelle.

Transportation issues, specifically fuel costs and employee costs, are large contributors to the rate increase. Schnelle said charter and cyber schools have increased costs, as well as special education. Utilities such as electricity, natural gas and gasoline are also more expensive, on top of a slight increase in salaries and health care costs.

“The district is facing the same inflation issues everyone else is facing,” Schnelle said.

The remainder of the district’s COVID funding must be spent by September 2024, she said.

Residents in the Seneca Valley School District will have to bear a tax increase of 2.55 mills for the next school year. The district’s final school budget for 2023-24, which has just over $168 million in expenditures, passed at the monthly school board meeting June 12.

The millage rate for the district increased from 130.45 mills to 133 mills. The increase will cost the owner of a median home in the district an additional $66 annually, according to the district.

A home with an approximate market value at $100,000 would bring in $1,873 in taxes.

Even with the increase, Seneca Valley is projected to run at a loss, even though revenue is expected to increase at a faster rate than expenditures.

“The increase is necessary in this instance due to the impact of inflation across nearly all cost categories,” said Linda Andreassi, district communications director.

Not helping matters is that Seneca Valley has been forced to budget for a gradual decrease in COVID-related federal grant money, as well as an increase in wages and health care for all staff.

But inflation isn't the only reason for the tax increase. This school year, two long-term construction projects came to fruition. The first was Ehrman Crest Elementary and Middle School in Cranberry Township, which opened in August to rave reviews.

The new school building, designed with the aid of the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, cost $63 million. As a result of the project, Seneca Valley is expecting to shoulder additional debt.

This March, Seneca Valley's Academy of Choice opened a new, 6,200-square-foot Cyber Drop-in Center on Executive Drive, where cyber-students can stop by for one-on-one time with teachers or attend physical classes. The Cyber Drop-in Center features a STEM lab with a 3D printer among other features.

Seneca Valley is eyeing more expansion and development in its future, including the renovation of the intermediate high school.

“This budget also permits us to add money to our capital projects funds knowing we have additional needs,” Andreassi said.

The Slippery Rock Area School board proposed a budget with total expenditures reaching $36.4 million, which would be balanced by a 3 mill tax increase.

Paul Cessar, district business manager, said the board is expected to vote on the final budget June 26. If approved, the budget would be an increase of about $748,000 over the 2022-23 budget, with the main increase in employee salaries and benefits.

“Seventy percent of our budget is salary and benefits; our medical is increasing approximately 7%,” Cessar said. “The current millage is 102.25 … 105.5 mills would be the total after increase.”

A home in the district valued at $100,000 would bring in $1,485 in taxes next year.

Salaries account for about $14.1 million, the total for benefits comes in at about $9.2 million and other purchased services accounts for about $5.3 million, which are the top three line items in the district’s proposed budget. Each expense listed is slightly above the costs listed in the previous year’s budget.

Cessar said the district spent a large portion of its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund on HVAC system updates, as well as extra security.

The district’s new budget has some building maintenance projects included in its expenses, like roof updates and air conditioning equipment for the middle school.

“We're going to spend close to $2.9 million on that project,” Cessar said.

Eagle Staff Writers Cole Myers, Austin Uram and William Pitts contributed to this report.

This story was updated June 29, 2023 to reflect the millage in Butler Area School District as 106.98 for the 2023-24 school year.