BUTLER TWP — The Butler Area School District board got a first look at the coming year’s budget on Monday, Feb. 12, and also heard how the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School’s budget could impact next year’s funds.

Superintendent Brian White presented the 2024-25 preliminary budget, which has $113.4 million in expenditures — a 2.69% increase from the 2023-24 budget, which had $110.43 million in expenditures.

White said the final budget the school board votes on is usually different from the one he presents. Heather Bonzo, finance director for the school district, said the state would allow the district to raise its tax rate this year by 7.27 mills, but the preliminary budget is already balanced.

“Based on our assessment value as of November and our estimated revenue collection, that would bring an additional $3,750,000 if we raise it to the max,” Bonzo said. “Right now with projected increases of 2.69%, it is actually a balanced preliminary budget.”

White also said the state budget will affect how much the district can count on from state sources.

Regina Hiler, executive director of the county vo-tech, presented the school’s preliminary budget to the board during its committee of the whole meeting. The vo-tech school gets its funding from the six school districts in Butler County that have students at the school, and each district’s school board must agree to the budget in individual member votes and votes as a whole.

According to Hiler, the proposed budget of $6.7 million is up about $228,000 from last year’s $6.51 million budget. She said the increases in the budget are from a higher tech support cost as well as health care costs. However, the school put some initiatives on hold, including graphic design remodeling, Hiler said.

Butler school district’s share of the funding is about $32,000 less than its $2.3 million contribution last year, because of the decrease in student population at the school, said Butler school board president Al Vavro.

School board member John Conrad, who is also chairman of the vo-tech school board, said it took a lot of work to maintain as small a budget increase as possible.

“We were able to get a budget that was reasonable,” Conrad said. “A significant part of the budget increase was basically health care costs ... I strongly encourage everyone to support the budget.”

The school board also voted to reappoint the school’s solicitor, the firm of Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham, with no increase this year to its rate of $195 per hour.

The school board met in executive session before its regular meeting to discuss real estate matters, which White said involved talks about the former Butler Middle School.

According to White, there is a new party interested in a “portion of the building.” Pittsburgh Gateways has been in negotiations to purchase the building, and White said the company is still involved, along with the Butler Community Development Corporation.

The building is still costing the school district money, so White said district administrators are trying to get the building off its plate as soon as possible.

“We did tell them we’re on an expedited timeline,” White said. “I’m not sure if it will or will not work out, but we’re trying to flush that through.”

Students will make up two snow days this year, the first on April 1, which is the Monday after Easter, and the second on June 7, which will be the last day of school instead of June 6, following a vote by the school board Monday.

White said the district had a few remote instruction days when the weather was not cooperating, but administrators still opted to have a few snow days. He also said parents had asked him when the makeup days would be.

“I got more phone calls this year asking if we would make up the days or not,” White said.