Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School is closing in on final approval of its 2025-26 budget, as long as the final district to vote decides to pass the spending plan.

Butler Vo-Tech needs five of its seven school district members to approve its annual budget, and then it needs a majority of all individual board members to approve it as well.

So far, five of the seven districts have approved the budget — Moniteau, Slippery Rock Area, Mars, Butler and Karns City. Knoch voted against approval, 5-2.

Seneca Valley’s board heard from vo-tech executive director Regina Hiler on Monday night, March 3 and will vote on the budget at its meeting next Monday.

Some board members have expressed concerns over the budget due to increases related to the teachers’ contract. District board members from each district make up the joint operating committee that approved the five-year contract in December 2023. It passed in a 9-3 vote, with board members from Knoch, Karns City and Moniteau voting against the contract. One of Knoch’s two members on the committee approved the budget, one voted against.

Knoch, Karns City and Moniteau clearly had some reservations about this contract in 2023 and this year, Knoch once again voted against that contract and its impact on the budget. That contract approval was the time to speak out against this funding issue and to vote appropriately, as one Knoch member did.

Before Moniteau and Slippery Rock approved the budget, there were concerns over whether the budget would get approval from five districts as they expressed frustrations with the budget increases.

This week at Seneca Valley was no different, with one board member calling the budget a bitter pill that required some sugar to take and offered hopes Hiler won’t take it personally if the board doesn’t approve it, but would rather come back next year with something better.

Both Seneca Valley committee members approved the teachers contract in 2023, knowing the impact on all budgets moving through each of the five years it encompasses. The time to battle over what teachers are paid and what their health care will cost has long since passed until the next contact negotiations begin.

In recent years, this country and Pennsylvania in particular have made a push to ensure our students understand college is not the only path after high school — that vo-tech is not only a reasonable option, but a valuable one.

Let’s not lose sight of that important fact while we’re debating the costs of running such a crucial program that simply must include the cost of adequately paying and retaining teachers.

— KL