The Palmyra Board of Education met Wednesday, May 1, to review and discuss the proposed 2019-2020 school budget ahead of a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, May 8.
According to Business Administrator William Blatchly, the budget features no increase in tax rate per every $100 of assessed property value. In fact, owners of an average assessed home in Palmyra, valued at $147,580, will see a decrease of a little more than $4.
In total, the average school tax bill for residents will be $3,256.47, down from last year’s $3,260.60.
Several factors contributed to the decrease in taxes. Palmyra schools received an additional $66,879 in state aid this year, an additional $187,304 in local revenue and was awarded an additional $19,526 in grants. The district also saw a decrease of $36,852 in debt service.
The value of the average assessed home in Palmyra fell from $147,599 in 2018 to $147,580 in 2019, which also contributed to the decrease in tax.
Blatchly reported the district’s 2019-2020 total proposed budget is set at $19,329,435. Broken down, the district is paying $19,525 per student.
This total includes appropriations such as $9,134,591 for the cost of operations and services, $1,648,638 in tuition costs and $1,325,653 for special education.
According to Blatchly, co-curricular costs increased by $35,638 mostly due to the coming addition of a standalone middle school to be housed within the existing high school building and the preparations involved in that process.
Blatchly attributed a significant portion of the $330,213 increase in capital outlay to the outfitting of a new science lab at the high school.
Superintendent Brian McBride addressed new additions to the district, including new math, science, language arts and social studies textbook series.
He pointed out that the purchase of these textbooks is dependent on student enrollment requests.
“In years past, sometimes we were running classes with two students, and we’re going to pull away from that. It’s just not cost-effective,” said McBride.
New programming costs include a number of summer programs, like algebra boot camp for eighth-grade students, summer STEAM for grades five through eight, AP mini classes and college boot camp.
New equipment and technology include purchases of six new interactive white boards for Charles Street School and eight for the high school, 165 new Chromebooks, two new and two replacement network printers, security camera upgrades for Charles Street, cafeteria table replacements and the replacement of three athletic scoreboards.
Some upgrades to district facilities include 50 additional student lockers for the new middle school, the conversion of a wood shop into a science classroom, lavatory rehabilitation at Charles Street, AC replacement in the high school library and on the Charles Street stage and ceiling tile replacement in two classrooms.
For a full breakdown of the 2019-2020 budget and a copy of the presentation delivered at the meeting, visit palmyraschools.com.
