WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. \u2013 Whitehall-Coplay School District officials on Monday warned of growing financial pressure as they reviewed the district\u2019s proposed 2026-27 budget.<\/p>\n
At their finance committee meeting, the board of directors and district administrators discussed a proposed $110.7 million spending plan that would leave a gap of about $9.2 million before any use of fund balance or adjustments. Officials project a roughly $6 million shortfall after adjustments.<\/p>\n
The plan includes a proposed 4.7% property tax increase, the maximum allowed under the state\u2019s Act 1 index.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not one for alarm bells or anything like that, but it\u2019s alarm bell time for our district,\u201d board Treasurer George Williams said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a situation where if we don\u2019t start really looking not only at our expenses, at creative ways to generate income and really sustain these taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
District officials said they may still need to use fund balance to close the gap, even with the tax increase.<\/p>\n
Business Manager Michael Malay said the district expects about $101.5 million in total revenue for 2026-27, an increase of roughly $2.8 million from $98.6 million in 2025-26.<\/p>\n
That includes $62 million in local revenue, up $63,420; $38 million in state funding, an increase of about $2.8 million; and $1.5 million in federal revenue, up about $36,000. Officials said state funding accounts for the bulk of the increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe built this budget assuming we are getting what the governor proposed,\u201d Malay said.<\/p>\n
Instruction remains the district\u2019s largest expense at about $70 million, an increase of roughly $7 million. Major cost drivers include salaries, health care and charter school payments.<\/p>\n
Teacher salaries account for a $2.5 million increase, while paraprofessional salaries rose by $250,000 and other salaries increased by $238,000. Medical costs climbed $1.9 million to $11.5 million, and charter school payments rose $800,000 to $7.3 million. Retirement costs total $14 million, up $696,000.<\/p>\n
Support services, which include guidance, speech services, transportation and operations, total about $29 million, an increase of 6.8%, or $1.9 million.<\/p>\n
The plan also includes $1.5 million to replace about 10 district vehicles, including six buses, two wheelchair-accessible buses and two vans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting to the teetering point of \u2018will there be enough buses running to do the bus runs?\u2019\u201d Malay said.<\/p>\n
Student activities and athletics are budgeted at $1.6 million, an increase of $65,000. Bond payments and financing total $8.8 million, up 0.09%, or $8,309.<\/p>\n
With a projected shortfall of about $6 million after adjustments, district officials said they are reviewing potential savings in areas such as paraprofessional staffing, substitute coverage and equipment costs.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s discussion was one of several budget meetings ahead of final adoption in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. \u2013 Whitehall-Coplay School District officials on Monday warned of growing financial pressure as they reviewed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,19583,74419,74418,26770,19581],"class_list":["post-165124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-finance-committee-meeting","tag-george-williams","tag-michael-malay","tag-whitehall-twp","tag-whitehall-coplay-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}