Quaker Valley school board expected to hold the line on property taxes

The Quaker Valley school board will vote in about a month on a final budget that does not include a tax increase and instead uses leftover funds to fill an approximate $728,000 gap.

The school district will head into the 2021-22 school year with around $52.9 million in revenue and $53.6 million in expenses, which represents an increase in spending of around $1.7 million.

Scott Antoline, the district’s district’s director of finance and operations, said during an April 20 meeting the increase in spending comes partly from a $500,000 transfer of funds to district’s capital projects – namely money for the planned high school construction project.

Antoline said the transfer to the capital projects fund is strategic as the district looks “to build up capacity and savings for this significant investment.”

“We will layer in the debt strategically with our current long-term payment schedule and phase in the borrowings and any millage impact over multiple years to ease the impact to the taxpayers,” Antoline said in an email.

He said district officials are have been reviewing proposals from architectural firms. He said the administration hopes to have two or three firms presented to the board at a meeting in May or early June.

“Once an architectural firm is hired, the design phases will begin and that will drive the bid, award and ultimate construction timelines with an anticipated completion date in 2025,” he said.

The district also projects spending a little more than $1 million on teachers’ salaries and benefits.

Antoline said another $175,000 will be added to the district’s obligation in charter school tuition payments. Higher enrollment in those schools is driving that cost up, he said.

The board held the line on property taxes for another year; however, district officials have said an increase could come as construction on the high school progresses. Two building plans have been discussed that could determine future tax hikes.

One plan costs the district $87 million for a new high school. That plan would raise yearly tax bills by about $272. The other plan would cost the district $95 million and would add about $305 a year to a resident’s tax bills.

The district serves 11 municipalities and currently levies a 19.4711 millage rate for its residents. Millage was last increase in June 2019. That means the owner of a property valued at $227,850 – the median value for the district – owes $4,436 in real estate taxes to finance school operations.

Antoline said the school district’s finances did better than expected through the pandemic.

“We came in stronger than anticipated,” he said. “We’re below past experience levels, but we’re above our pandemic budget, which had lower projections in them than what came in.”

He said the reason for that is due, in part, to the district’s awards in federal stimulus money and sound fiscal management.

The district received approximately $190,000 in 2020 and Antoline expects to receive around $1 million this year. He said the district has budgeted $400,000 in the 2021-22 spending plan. The remaining funds will be used in subsequent years through September 2024, he said.

The board is expected to vote on the district’s final budget on May 25.