Upper Darby School District is planning a 3.95 percent real estate tax increase for the coming school year.
At last week’s Finance and Operations Committee meeting, officials heard a presentation on the coming year’s $290.8 million budget.
A home accessed at $100,000 would see a $105 increase, a home accessed at $200,000 would see a $210 increase and a home accessed at $300,000 would see a $314 increase.
The final budget is expected to be voted on at the June 16 meeting.
Craig Rogers, chief financial officer and school board secretary, said the district remained below the Act 1 state permitted 5.1 percent limit. The tax increase would bring in $4.5 million in additional revenue. $65 million in state funding would be an increase of $8 million and recent updates indicate federal programs would see an increase of $1.5 million.
The district fund balance will cover $6.1 million to balance the budget for the coming year.
Rogers said that if state funding is held up by state budget issues, as occurred last year, the district has projected financial certainty prior to December, if state funds are released.
Superintendent Dr. Daniel McGarry said the district would provide regular updates should such a scenario materialize.
The proposed budget includes plans for the bus stop-arm camera program, grants for generator replacement, Solar4Schoools at Hillcrest and Stonehurst as well as capital improvement projects at Highland Park, Garrettford Elementary and the high school.
The majority of that work is ready to start during the summer recess, Rogers said.
Two major projects that will come to fruition in the coming year will not impact the budget.
Rogers said there will be no new staff positions with the opening of Clifton Heights Middle School and the closing of Charles Kelly School.
During public comment, McGarry reiterated that the opening of Clifton Heights should not require a change in the budget. Students and staff will shift when that school opens. They aim for an August opening, however they have multiple contingencies if the building isn’t ready until January, he said.
McGarry took the opportunity to rail against unfunded state and federal mandates in special education for school districts. He said they are not sustainable.
According to the superintendent, special education laws call for nearly 40 percent of that funding be provided by state and the federal government but it has reached less than 20 percent in the past.
“Those mandates carry through to school districts to support students and families,” McGarry said.
Board member Donald Fields said in budgeting terms costs are going up so a funding with no change in funding is actually a cut. He said state and federal funding giving the increase in costs is actually a cut.
Fields said it is a political issue everyone knows is wrong but no one is correcting it.
Member David Neill introduced a resolution calling for the state government to equitably fund districts, such as Upper Darby. The matter refers to the 2023 judicial ruling in Pennsylvania that mandates equitable funding. However, subsequent state budgets haven’t yet reached that mandated level.
Neill said the resolution was boilerplate but the sentiment behind it is not.
“Few towns can afford the full necessary price tag of a fully funded school system. Property taxes have always been too little to meet this need,” Neill said. “The federal government is nowhere to be seen, as they are focused on ballrooms and ill-advised wars. Our state government is the last resort.”
Neill said every dollar put into schools will be repaid in untold ways.
The resolution passed unanimously.