Slippery Rock school district considers tax hike
SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — The Slippery Rock Area School District board will vote on a budget proposal for the upcoming 2024-25 school year at its next meeting.
During their meeting Monday, June 3, members looked at the proposal, which includes estimated expenditures totaling $38.3 million, meaning they would need a tax increase of 4.08 mills to balance.
In budget components presented by district business manager Paul Cessar, expenditures total about $2 million more than the current budget, which had expenditures of about $36.4 million. The school board increased taxes by 3 mills to balance that budget, which brought the total millage rate in the district to 104.75.
Cessar said the numbers in the budget he showed the board Monday are not set in stone, but added that although real estate tax revenues have risen, they have not risen enough to meet the needs of the option he presented.
“For April into early May, we got our numbers, real estate, the pace has picked up in assessment, but it still needs to pick up to reach what the budget number is,” Cessar said. “There are options to take some out of the fund balance.”
The school board also awarded bids for its high school renovation project Monday, which will update the building’s cafeteria and music room, create a new secure building entrance and update heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
The general construction bid went to R.A. Glancy & Sons, for a total of $10,068,000; the HVAC bid went to Renick Brothers for a little over $8.2 million; electrical construction went to Westmoreland Electric for more than $4.6 million; the plumbing contract went to Ender’s Plumbing for more than $1.3 million; and food service equipment went to Bova Corp. for more than $432,000.
The board approved contracts for middle school and high school construction projects at a meeting Sept. 11.
Also at the meeting, the school board approved a proclamation recognizing the cast and crew of the high school’s spring musical, “Newsies,” a production that netted several Henry Mancini Awards at a ceremony in May.
In its category, the production won Best Musical, Best Choreography Execution, Best Crew/Technical Execution, Best Ensemble, Best Execution of Direction and its lead actor, Anderson Franco, won Best Actor.
Alexandra Franco, producing liaison and co-director of the production, said at the meeting the students put all of their passion and talent into the production for months in rehearsals, and then for its shows in April. Several students also spoke about how the experience in the musical impacted them in a positive way.
“We are small, but we are mighty in talent,” Alexandra Franco said.
