Hempfield Area finance committee wrestles with $172K deficit ahead of budget vote

Hempfield Area will still need to cover a $172,000 gap before passing a final budget for the 2025-2026 school year later this month.

The school board held its final public hearing on its $114.5 million budget Monday evening. It approved May 19 a proposed final budget with a 4.35-mill tax hike, which would cover about $2.6 million of a roughly $2.8 million deficit.

Hempfield Area had the sixth-highest property tax rate of the county’s 17 school districts in 2024-2025, said Business Manager Paul Schott.

The district’s goal is not to dip into its fund balance to eliminate the remaining $172,000 deficit, Schott said. Keeping a strong fund balance could aid the district’s chances at securing future bonds, he said — which may be needed as Hempfield moves forward with its high school renovation project.

“When we’re looking at (taking out a bond),” he said, “it definitely helps us out with our rating.”

Hempfield’s allocation of the state’s gaming revenue will not give the district any budgetary relief, Schott said. Its funding will go directly toward providing tax cuts to the 13,065 homestead and farmstead property owners in the district, enacted by 2006 state legislation.

The gaming revenue’s original purpose, Schott said, was to cut down on districts’ reliance on property taxes.

“We’re a long way from that,” he said, “but I guess a little bit is better than none at this point in time.”

Schott is hopeful that legislation advanced Monday morning by the state House Education Committee will alleviate some of the strain on the district budget. The bill sets a flat cyber tuition rate of $8,000 per student annually, capping the cost districts have to pay for students in their area to attend independent public cyber schools.

If the $8,000 rate applies to both regular and special education students, the district could save nearly $2.7 million, Schott said.

“If there’s some information that can come out in a timely manner that we can react to, we’ll definitely do that and try to have a positive impact on our budget prior to final approval on (June) 23,” he said.

“That would be our ultimate goal. But time’s ticking.”

Superintendent Mark Holtzman is doubtful the state Senate will pass the bill.

“I just don’t see it happening,” said Holtzman, adding that cyber charter tuition reform has popped up in educators’ discussions every year of his career, which spans more than two decades.

Holtzman said the district may have harmed its financial stability by not raising taxes from 2019 to 2023.

“You have to pave parking lots. You have to replace signs. You have to do things … you don’t think about (as) school responsibilities, but they are,” he said. “And when you ignore them for too long, you end up having facilities in places where kids don’t want to go.

“We’re right now in a competitive world of competing for kids, based on these (cyber) charter school arrangements. We have to have the best of everything to offer them.”

Raising taxes is the only way for the district to remain in good financial standing, said veteran board member Diane Ciabattoni.

“Those years, we probably looked like wonderful people, because (we didn’t raise taxes),” said Ciabattoni, reflecting on the 2019 to 2023 district budgets.

“But you pay at the end. We don’t want the school district to go down.”

Hempfield Area School Board will vote on its final 2025-2026 budget at 7 p.m. June 23 at the administration building. A board discussion meeting will be held at 7 p.m. June 9, also at the administration building.