Greater Latrobe to end elementary Spanish program, considers tax hike of less than 2 mills

Greater Latrobe School District is looking to eliminate elementary Spanish instruction in its proposed 2025-26 budget as most school board members want to limit any potential tax increase to less than 2 mills.

The board is expected at its meeting Tuesday to vote on finalizing a budget with $68.4 million in expenditures and a projected $683,130 shortfall in revenue.

At last week’s committee-of-the-whole meeting, district business administrator Dan Wilson recommended increasing the real estate tax by 2 mills to 90 mills. He said it would allow the district to start setting aside funds for regular curriculum updates and for capital improvements.

One mill of property tax generates about $350,000 in revenue for the school system.

Wilson noted the district recently has been using federal pandemic recovery funding, which now has come to an end, to help update curriculum areas on a five-year rolling cycle.

The English language arts curriculum is in line for replacement this coming school year, at a cost of about $500,000, Wilson said. He suggested the district include half of that cost in the general fund budget and draw the remaining amount from its unassigned fund balance, to help limit the local tax burden.

School board President Andrew Repko cautioned against drawing too heavily on the unassigned fund balance, which he said sits at about $5 million.

“That covers two months worth of bills,” Repko said. He recalled a past school year when the district dipped heavily into the fund balance to cover its payroll while passage of the state budget, and the arrival of funding from Harrisburg, was delayed for several months.

As for capital spending, Watson said, Greater Latrobe is paying $4 million annually toward the remaining debt on the construction of Latrobe Elementary School.

On Tuesday, the board is slated to vote on replacement of the junior high roof, a job that might require two construction seasons to complete. The apparent low bid of close to $6.2 million is about $2 million less than was estimated.

Also on the meeting agenda are approval to resurface the Rossi Field track at the high school complex — at a cost of about $147,000 — and authorization to seek bids for a track improvement project at the district’s Memorial Stadium in Latrobe.

Replacement of outdated HVAC units at the junior high, with an estimated cost of $9 million, is still to come. District officials expect to face decisions on additional major building investments, as the senior high and two remaining elementary buildings are decades old.

Watson said boosting local revenue gradually, through reasonable millage rate increases, is one way the district can prepare for future projects.

He recommended a two-mill hike in the coming school year, noting each mill would add about $27 to the tax bill of the average homeowner. Currently, he said, Greater Latrobe has the third lowest millage rate among all school districts in Westmoreland County. Ligonier Valley has the lowest, 85.9 mills, while Burrell School District is near the top, at 117.5 mills.

A two-mill increase may be too much for most of the school board members.

With Heidi Kozar absent, a poll of the eight board members at last week’s meeting showed a majority preferring a smaller tax increase of between one mill and 1.5 mills.

Merle D. Musick said he wants to keep the real estate tax level at 88 mills.

Brad Toman said he could support a tax hike of between one mill and 1.5 mills.

“Our community cannot sustain rapid and large tax increases,” Toman said. “A moderate increase, when appropriate, is the most fiscally conservative thing to consider.”

Tom Gockel said he could support a tax increase of up to 1.5 mills if it would allow the district to complete both the roof replacement and the HVAC upgrade at the junior high.

“The roof needs to be put on and the HVAC needs to be done,” he said.

Rhonda Laughlin suggested board members will need to consider making cuts in expenditures in order to balance the budget if a lesser tax increase is approved and state funding ends up being less than the figure proposed by Gov. Josh Shapiro.

“I’m not quite sure where everybody thinks the money is going to come from,” she said.

If Shapiro’s recommendation is approved by legislators, Greater Latrobe would see a $1.2 million increase in state funding. The proposed district budget is based on that amount.

If the board passes a tax increase, Laughlin said, she’d like to see the school district expand eligibility for homeowner participation in a district tax rebate program intended for those 65 or older, those 50 or older whose spouse has died or those 18 or older with a permanent disability.

“We recognize it’s going to be a hardship for our seniors,” she said of any tax hike. “I would like to see us increase the income threshold for seniors to get the rebate.”

Based on guidelines of a similar state rebate program, Greater Latrobe most recently set a maximum household income limit of $45,000 to participate.

“There’s an extremely small percentage of the eligible population that actually takes advantage of that,” Toman said of the rebate.

Watson said no more than 15 taxpayers had signed up for the rebate.

With 22 staffers retiring or resigning during the school year just ended and student enrollment continuing to decline, Greater Latrobe is set to eliminate seven instructional positions through attrition.

As a result, Watson said, the district expenditure on salaries will increase by just a little under $71,000, or by 0.25%. In other years, he noted, the amount spent on salaries has increased by as much as $900,000.

Jon Mains, assistant to the superintendent for secondary education, said the only program that will be eliminated is Spanish foreign language instruction in grades K-6, which has received a mixed response since it was introduced a few years ago.

“Spanish instruction will start in the seventh grade, as it has done for years in our school district other than the last couple of years,” said Becki Pellis, assistant to the superintendent for elementary education. Pellis is ending her additional role of interim superintendent, with Kim Rieffannacht set to take over as superintendent July 1.

Pellis noted the elementary Spanish teacher is not being laid off but is transferring to the junior high, replacing a teacher who is leaving there to take over a senior high Spanish position vacated by a departing instructor.

The six other positions being phased out through attrition are in the areas of gifted education, senior high math, science and social studies, junior high learning support and instructional coaching.

The proposed final district budget calls for expenditures to increase by about $1.7 million, or 2.6%, while revenues are expected to go up by a little more than $1 million, or 1.57%.

Special education costs are set to increase by $292,109 while the district will spend an additional $300,000 on compensation for faculty who take on extra duty positions, such as coaching and advisory roles. The pay rates have been upgraded for the first time since 1982.

As noted by Richard Cassidy of Kattan Ferretti Insurance, district insurance premiums are slated to increase overall by 4.5%.