Fox Chapel Area school taxes climb slightly

Fox Chapel Area residents will pay slightly higher school taxes in 2021-22.

The school board on June 14 approved its $104 million budget, seeing the tax rate climb from 19.8 to 20.1 mills. It is a 1.3% increase.

The owner of a home assessed at $100,000 will pay $2,010, up from $1,980.

The millage increase is expected to add more than $800,000 in revenue, school leaders said.

School board members passed the budget with a vote of 6-2, with Vanessa Lynch and Edith Cook voting against it.

“It’s good to see us make a lot of progress when it comes to the budget this year, but I’m going to remain a ‘no,” Lynch said. “I think there are things we need to be looking more deeply at.”

Cook agreed that the entire board is committed to making progress but voted no because of questions about staffing levels.

“In a year that we’re going to raise taxes, I would hope that we could continue to have staffing levels remain the same or close to the same,” she said.

Jill Leonard, Fox Chapel Area’s community engagement specialist, said the district is not filling one support position and two contractual positions due to attrition.

“Also, the district reorganized work responsibilities for one contractual position and one support position, which resulted in additional cost savings,” Leonard said.

Several people at the June 14 school board meeting appeared to take exception to the staff reorganization. Many bemoaned the transfer of an art teacher from Dorseyville Middle School, thereby reducing the art staff by one-third and increasing class sizes.

Bonnie Berzonski, district coordinator of communications, was not able to be reached for comment about the DMS art program in the days following the meeting.

In all, the budget calls for total expenses of $104,802,939.

Berzonski said previously that many of the expenses that were reduced because of the covid-19 pandemic were added back for the coming year, including summer custodial substitute staffing, maintenance services, the district’s Summer Learning Academy and buses for field trips.

Some other highlighted costs for next year include a 12% increase in tuition costs to cyber and charter schools, special education facilities and the A.W. Beattie Career Center; a 5% increase for medical insurance premiums and a 7% increase for vision coverage; and a 6% increase in costs for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) employer contribution rate.

The budget includes more than $16 million for the PSERS employer contribution, with the employer contribution rate set at 34.94%. The state reimburses the district 50% of those costs.

The budget also includes nearly $600,000 in capital expenses that include windows at Dorseyville Middle School and a roof at the high school. Some of the costs will be paid for with federal stimulus funds.

The district is expected to receive about $5.4 million in stimulus and grants related to covid-19. Already, some of the money has been spent on summer learning, special education and personal protective equipment.

Future plans for the money include capital projects, equipment purchases and learning intervention programs.

Stimulus funds must be spent by September 2024.