EMMAUS, Pa. \u2013 The East Penn School District Board of Directors on Monday adopted a preliminary budget with a 4.1% property tax increase.<\/p>\n
Officials said the proposed nearly $213.6 million 2026-27 budget remains balanced, but the district faces long-term financial pressure as costs continue to outpace revenue growth.<\/p>\n
The budget presents a tax rate of 22.735 mills while continuing a property tax rebate program for eligible residents.<\/p>\n
District estimates show that an increase at that level would raise the annual property tax bill by about $194 for the average assessed home currently valued at $216,367 in the district.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s plan represented a budget that became balanced, in part, by reducing the district\u2019s capital reserve contribution by $1.5 million, said Superintendent Kristen Campbell.<\/p>\n
Even with a balanced budget, Campbell warned of a structural deficit and ongoing fiscal challenges.<\/p>\n
Early budget talks identified a preliminary budget gap of about $2.14 million for the 2026-27 school year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognize there is an obligation not just to continue to look at the 2026-27 budget but also to be very mindful about the structural deficit in the budget and attempt to alleviate some of those long-term pressures that we anticipate existing in the budget,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n
Officials identified $622,000 in reductions that could be taken but weren\u2019t reflected in Monday\u2019s spending plan. The amount was composed of $150,000 in departmental cuts; $222,000 from losing two support staff positions; and $250,000 from losing two professional staff positions. The positions would be lost through attrition, officials said.<\/p>\n
Campbell said those options could be used in future revisions while maintaining class sizes and student support levels.<\/p>\n
Board member Joshua Levinson said he supports the tax increase despite it reaching the Act 1 index limit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t take that position lightly,\u201d he said, adding the district must continue to streamline operations to avoid \u201cplaying catch-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board President Shonta Ford said officials are working to keep students first while recognizing the impact of any cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re mindful that every decision has an impact on people,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EMMAUS, Pa. \u2013 The East Penn School District Board of Directors on Monday adopted a preliminary budget with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,1416,52677,3151,1417,1436,1437,48307],"class_list":["post-177885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-east-penn-school-district","tag-east-penn-school-district-board-of-directors","tag-emmaus","tag-epsd","tag-joshua-levinson","tag-kristen-campbell","tag-shonta-ford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177885","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=177885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}