Gateway School Board caps tax increase, elects president

An increase in Gateway School District’s real estate tax rate is capped at 5.3% for 2024.

The school board voted Dec. 5 to approve a resolution vowing not to exceed the index established for the district by the state Department of Education.

Legislation adopted as Act 1 of 2006 calls for a statewide base index that takes into account each year’s changes in wages throughout Pennsylvania and in school employee compensation costs nationally. From there, the index is adjusted for individual school districts based on relative wealth.

Gateway’s current real estate tax rate is 22.857 mills. A 5.3% increase would boost it to slightly over 24 mills.

Any determination in that regard, though, has quite a while to go. A final 2024-25 budget isn’t due for adoption until June 30.

Meanwhile, Jan. 4 is the deadline for school districts to file not-to-exceed resolutions with the state, certifying that increasing any tax at a rate less than or equal to the index will be sufficient to balance the final budget.

Under the conditions of Act 1, not-to-exceed resolutions basically are formalities. The typical Pennsylvania school district is unable to raise the rate by an amount higher than its index unless voters approve the measure by referendum.

In other school board business on Dec. 5:

• Robin Mungo was elected president during the board’s annual reorganization, which preceded the evening’s regular business meeting.

Mungo, a Gateway High School graduate and Monroeville resident, was appointed to the board in February 2021 to fill a vacancy, and she won a four-year term in the general election later that year.

A retired Pennsylvania State Police trooper and Army Reserve veteran, she is the owner of Cindy Cohen School of Driving in Esplen.

The board elected John Ritter as vice president in a 5-4 vote over Jack Bova, who was president in 2022-23. Board policy limits a president to serving two consecutive one-year terms.

Ritter and Bova were reelected in November, as were Susan DeLaney and Valerie Warning. Joining the board after winning election are Cheryl Boise and Donna Burns.

• Board member Mandal Singh was nominated by his colleagues as a candidate for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit Board of Directors.

The 13-person AIU board has two openings because of members not being reelected in their home districts. Vacancies are filled by a majority vote of the remaining members.

Serving as a liaison with the Department of Education, the AIU provides specialized services to Allegheny County’s suburban school districts and to non-public, charter and vocational-technical schools.