May 25, 2017 By Cara Host 3 min read

For the second straight year, Bethel Park School Board approved a budget without a tax increase.

The 2017-18 budget of $84.65 million approved May 23 by the board grew by about 1.4 percent over this year’s spending plan. The increase is largely due to rising costs for pension, health care and contractual salary obligations.

The property tax rate will remain at 22.8763 mills, meaning the owner of a property assessed at $100,000 can expect to pay $2,287.63 in school property taxes, before the reduction for homestead exemption. Qualified homeowners can expect to receive credits of $166.41 next year.

Bethel Park may need to dip into its fund balance by up to about $900,000 to balance the budget. That fund is estimated at $5.4 million.

The district will spend more than 62 percent of its budget on instruction, including teachers’ salaries, books and other expenses. About 27 percent of the budget is for support services, which includes administrators, custodians and other staff. About 8 percent of the budget is earmarked for debt service payments and about two percent is for student and community activities.

The school district will save some money by not filling some positions that will be vacant due to retirements and resignations. The board voted to eliminate 15 positions in the latest round of cuts due to declining enrollment. No one will be laid off and some staff members will move to the six new positions that the board created during the May 23 meeting.

The closed positions include five administrative and support positions: two assistant high school principals, a school nurse, a high school custodian and an administrative secretary. Ten teaching positions were also closed: health and physical education, English, technology education, and business education at the high school; two fifth-grade teachers at Neil Armstrong Middle School; two third-grade teachers at Washington Elementary; a second-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary; and a third-grade teacher at Memorial Elementary.

The new positions are associate high school principal, two fourth-grade teachers at Washington, a first-grade teacher at Washington, a first-grade teacher at Lincoln and a fourth-grade teacher at Memorial.

The board also approved a $10,000 raise and a one-time performance bonus of $10,000 to Superintendent Joseph Pasquerilla, who was hired about 15 months ago. His salary is now $162,500.

In other business, the board:

Awarded a contract for the construction of a high school entrance sign to Carik Signs of Brentwood for $66,803. The school district received private donations that will cover the purchase. The school’s parent-teacher organization raised about $6,000 several years ago and the district received a $250,000 inheritance from an alumnus.

Awarded a contract for the purchase of new copiers, printers and related software as well as a maintenance contract for that equipment. ComDoc of Bridgeville will be paid $240,190 to outfit the district with printers and copiers and the firm will be paid $60,543 a year to maintain them for the next five years. Previously, Bethel Park had a copier contract with Ricoh.