A five-member majority of the Pine-Richland School Board approved the district’s 2025-26 budget with no tax increase over the concerns of the superintendent that the district’s finances are being politicized, and worries that future deficits could lead to severe cuts.

Superintendent Brian Miller has been urging the board to consider a 2.1% increase in the district’s property tax rate, warning that without it Pine-Richland will face painful cuts to deal with deficits as soon as the 2026-27 school year. An increase up to 4% was possible.

“I am not an alarmist. However, I have been sounding an alarm through my public comments and my written updates,” Miller said before the board voted June 9. “There are misconceptions about the budget that concern me greatly. I am deeply concerned that the budget will continue to be politicized. It has already been used in that manner.”

The district’s budget is projected to spend about $115.6 million in the coming school year, with revenue of about $107.4 million. The resulting $8.2 million deficit — $6.9 million for capital improvements and $1.2 million for operations — will be covered from the district’s fund balance.

The property tax rate will remain unchanged at 19.5867 mills, which it has been since the last property tax increase in 2017.

Voting in favor were board members Philip Morrissette, Lisa Hillman, Christina Brussalis, Leslie Miller and Michael Wiethorn. Voting against were Marc Casciani, Joseph Cassidy, Ashley Fortier and Amy Terchick.

How much the district has in reserve was in question.

While the most recent audit of the 2023-24 school year shows $38 million, Casciani, the board’s treasurer, said it’s actually $18 million, factoring in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. The district’s capital needs over the next five years total $27 million, he said.

“That’s a concern,” he said. “On top of that, we are now projecting operating deficits.”

Wiethorn said he had difficulty increasing taxes while the district is sitting on excess funds of more than $18 million, if not $30 million.

“I will vote to support this budget,” he said. “We will see what comes next year, and we’ll deal with it at that time.”

Morrissette, the board president, said he wants to have further discussions and take a “deeper dive” for future spending plans.

“This year, I feel strongly that we will manage the budget or the group will manage the budget within those means,” he said.

Leslie Miller said she has heard from residents for whom Allegheny County’s 36% property tax increase for 2025 has been a hardship.

“I still think we could do some deeper diving,” she said.

District resident Jennifer Beuse accused the board majority of negligence by not planning for the future, asking what their plan is for when, as Superintendent Miller said, the district faces projected operational deficits of $4.9 million for 2026-27 and $8.9 million for 2027-28.

“As my mom used to say, ‘There is no money tree to shake,’ ” she said. “Where is this magic money coming from?”

Casciani said he was supporting a tax increase for the second time in his 13 years on the board only because he is concerned about future years. The 1.97% property tax increase in 2017 is why the district has another $12 million in its reserves that it would not otherwise have, he said.

After staff cuts through attrition now, balancing future budgets with staff cuts is not sustainable, Casciani said.

“A 2.1% millage increase doesn’t even get us there, but it helps,” he said. “I do not expect another one next year or the year after. I expect to get a few years out of this increase and the revenue it would generate.”

Fortier said the board should take a long-term view of the challenges before the district.

“Some board members have said from the beginning that they would not vote to raise taxes. That is not a calculated decision based on current facts and financial projections. It is a predetermined political position,” she said. “Ignoring this problem will not make it go away. Some believe we can simply cut more from budgets or draw down the general fund to cover the gap. But if we don’t increase reoccurring revenue now, we are just borrowing against our future, and the future will come fast.”

By not doing something now, the board is just “kicking the can down the road,” Terchick said.

“I feel failure to act now is just going to be more pain down the road,” she said.

Without a tax increase, handling the projected deficits next school year and in future years will be “painful,” Superintendent Miller said.

“The future will involve a combination of tax increases, cuts to program, cuts to people, increases in class size, delayed purchases, aging resources and increases in student participation fees,” he said. “I believe stakeholders will be both surprised and shocked at the speed and depth of these impacts for 26-27 and beyond.”

Amy Cafardi, who is running for school board in the district’s Region 2, blasted the board majority as incompetent and arrogant. She and Melissa Vecchi will be on the November ballot for two Region 2 seats as Democrats, challenging Republican candidates Brussalis and Robert Stein. Terchick lost her bid for reelection in the region.

“The vote tonight to approve a budget against the advice of our business manager, superintendent (and) board treasurer is just the most recent example of your incompetence,” Cafardi said. “It would be bad enough if it was just incompetence but it’s not, it’s arrogance — your arrogance in failing to listen to experts, wasting your time with various political sideshows instead of being laser-focused on finances, arrogance in failing to educate yourselves on issues coming at this district like a freight train, where you choose to cover your ears and your eyes and hope that through divine intervention there will be some miracle solution in the future.

“There’s arrogance in consistently thinking that with no training or education on these issues you know better than the experts. Shame on you. This is not leadership. You are not leaders.”

Vecchi told administrators that the community supports them. “In November, change is coming,” she said.

Mike Barber, who ran unsuccessfully in the primary for Region 2, put his support behind Cafardi and Vecchi, as well as Randy Augustine for a seat in Region 3.

“The only way that we can solve the problem with the board majority is to vote them out,” Barber said. “That’s the only solution. These people do not want to pay attention, they do not want to interact, they do not want to hear from the community, they do not respect our talented leadership.”

Ben Ward, 17, who will be a senior in the fall, said students know the board to be dysfunctional and incapable of running the school district. He said students are paying the price of the board’s poor financial management through higher charges for football tickets, student parking and activity fees, while critical staff such as paraprofessionals essential for special education students have been cut.

“These budget cuts will hurt and the students who need help the most, they will feel it first and they will feel it worst,” he said. “In the future, if this deficit keeps growing, and it will without a tax increase, then what’s next? Do you start cutting extracurriculars, the very things that help students find themselves?

“Please, do the right thing: Put students first.”

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