The School District of Lancaster Board of Directors on June 20 unanimously approved a $279.1 million budget that invests in staff to promote safe, nurturing learning environments and new facilities.
The proposed budget includes $700,000 to add six additional deans of students at elementary and middle schools. Deans play an important role in resolving student, staff, and family concerns, particularly in the areas of school climate and attendance. This investment will ensure every school has at least a dean of students, if not one or more assistant principals.
The budget also includes an additional $1.5 million in debt service to finance the start of Phase IV of the district’s capital improvement plan. Phase IV is the final phase in the plan, involving the renovation or reconstruction of Burrowes, Carter & MacRae, Hamilton, King, and Price elementary schools, Wheatland Middle School, Phoenix Academy, and the main athletic complex at McCaskey High School.
The budget also allocates funds to support middle school world language programs, expansion of autistic support classrooms, two additional Speech Pathologists, and an additional School Psychologist to support the social and emotional needs of students.
To address a structural deficit of nearly $3 million, the budget raises property taxes by 2.85% and draws down some district reserves. At the new tax rate, the average property in the district (assessed at $165,530) will pay an additional $9.18 per month.
For more than a decade, the district has pursued a slow, incremental increase in its real estate tax in order to keep pace with rising deficits, as opposed to large spikes in difficult years. Tax increases have been below the adjusted Act 1 index (the maximum allowed by state law) every year since 2011. Over that time, the average tax increase has been 2.4%.
The next school year is the last for federal pandemic relief funds. The district will use $3 million to fund curriculum upgrades and another $1 million to modernize its print and digital library collections.
To reduce expenses while avoiding furloughs, the district will not fill some positions that are currently vacant and end the Full Circle Learning program.
The proposed budget assumes an increase in basic education funding and special education subsidies from the state based on the budget proposed by Governor Shapiro.