BUTLER TWP — Three school districts have passed the 2023-24 budget presented by the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School, and Regina Hiler, the school’s executive director, has presented the proposed budget to each school district in the county.

During a vo-tech meeting Thursday, March 2, Hiler said Karns City Area, Knoch and Seneca Valley school districts have approved the proposed budget, which has an operating cost of about $6.51 million, about $207,000 more than the previous year’s budget.

The school boards of Butler Area, Slippery Rock Area, Mars Area and Moniteau school districts still need to pass the budget as a whole before individual voting begins, Hiler said.

“Everybody on every board is asked to do their own ballot, and they get sent back to us and we open them publicly on April 6,” Hiler said. “It’s a process.”

John Conrad, chairman of the joint operating committee, explained that the budget has to be approved in two ways: as a whole by the school districts, and then by a majority of the school board members who will vote individually. In total, the vocational-technical school will receive 63 ballots with votes for the budget.

If more than 50% of the school board members approve the budget, it then can be presented to the vocational-technical school’s joint operating committee for final acceptance.