Lewisburg Area expected to raise taxes for 2025-26 school year

Yahoo

11-04-2025

LEWISBURG — Lewisburg Area School District is expected to increase real estate taxes between 2.2 and 3 percent in the 2025-26 school year.
At Thursday night's public meeting, the school board members directed Business Manager Kyle Winton to work on a budget that included a potential property tax increase within that range, a $400,000 transfer to the capital projects fund and the addition of three staff positions. The preliminary budget would be ready for approval at the May 8 meeting and the final budget would be adopted at the June 12 meeting.
Winton presented an updated look at the budget with revenues at $44,695,058 and expenditures at $44,961,594. Winton said the deficit went from $211,000 at last month's public meeting to $86,157 at Thursday night's public meeting.
The main differences are updated revenue projections in local contributions, basic education funding and Ready to Learn Block Grant, but there is less funding for special education. There are fewer personnel expenses, but increased costs in liability insurance, electricity for all buildings and natural gas for Linntown Intermediate School, Winston said.
A 3 percent increase would equal .6 additional mills, which would bring the total millage rate to 20.67. An average property owner would see an annual increase of $87, Winton said.
Historically, the district did not raise taxes in the 2020-21 school year. It increased taxes by 2.94 percent in 2021-22, 2.75 percent in 2022-23, 3.5 percent in 2023-24 and 3.5 percent in 2024-25.
Superintendent Cathy Moser said the new staff members would be a middle school assistant principal, a new special education teacher and a board-certified behavior analyst.
"There's rationale and justification for each of those," Moser said.
Moser and school board members and officials praised Winton for his work on the budget.
"The effort to bring the budget information, I greatly appreciate your work," Moser said to Winton.
Director Cory Heath said the presentation was "informative" with some "pleasant news."
"That's not always the case," Heath said.
In unrelated business, Phillip Campbell, the director of college partnerships at Lackawanna College, presented a pre-college agreement that would allow students to participate in dual enrollment from Lewisburg Area. Campbell said dual enrollment students would spend $100 a credit, which means they would spend $1,300 for a typical semester instead of $9,200.
Dual enrollment students can take college courses while they are attending high school. Campbell said one student will graduate from Lackawanna before they graduate from high school. He said his own daughter accumulated 30 credits before she graduated from high school and completed her bachelor's degree in three years instead of four.
While the school board did not vote on the agreement, School Board President Erin Jablonski commented that she liked the presentation.
In other business, the school board members approved:
* Forrester Environmental, Inc., of McAdoo, to perform asbestos flooring abatement proposal for three middle school rooms for $20,300.
* Clark Contractors, Inc., of Bedford, to perform Kelly Elementary School playground asphalt replacement for $67,083.04.