Taxpayers in the East Lycoming School District can look forward to no tax increases, according to the preliminary 2025-2026 budget.

The $30.5 million preliminary budget was provided for review to the board and is on the district website.

Dr. Mark Stamm, district superintendent, and Heather Burke, district business manager, recently reviewed the preliminary budget and timeline with the board.

Stamm, in a telephone call, was fairly upbeat about the proposed general fund budget of $30.5 million, which holds the tax line and represents a total increase of $945,110 or 3.19 %. The district continues to keep an eye on Harrisburg legislatures as they pore through Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed $51.5 million budget.

In accordance with Act 1 of 2006, the district by a resolution on Dec. 3, 2024, confirmed the district administration’s and school board’s intent of limiting any local tax increase to at or below the state published index of 5.5 % for the district.

The district’s adjusted Act 1 index of 5.5 % (approximately .91 mills) is in the equation. Real estate tax rate for the 2024-2025 year was 16.65 mills. The maximum real estate tax rate for the 2025-2026 is 17.56 mills.

The administration is expected to have budget updates next month with a proposed budget adoption in April and final budget adoption in May with the state annual deadline June 30.

Large expenditure changes are accounted for in the following categories:

Salary and wages: $12.7 million, an increase of 415,757

Health insurance: $3.1 million, an increase of $188,096

Retirement: $4.2 million, an increase of $152,239

The district also budgeted for equipment replacement, repairs and maintenance, Lycoming Career and Technology Center tuition, reserve funds, cyber and charter school tuition, student activity club, state level travel for athletics, heating and air conditioning and ventilation, automatic control and psychology contracted services.

As a note on expenditure, the district budgeted building repair/equipment allocation of $275,000 which allows it to plan for projects occurring in the next 3 to 5 years.

The district broke the revenue trends into a pie chart. It shows the proposed local revenue of $13,022,038, a change of $154,590. There is $17,110 in state revenue, a change of $805,860 and federal revenue of $40,456, a decrease of $15,340. This equals the preliminary budget listed of $30,572,547.

Enrollment

The district student enrollment is projected to be 1,594 for the 2025-2026 school year.

The enrollment projections do not include the 59 students who attend external Cyber Charter schools and 20 out of district students.

The district anticipates having 12 members of the administration, 115 professional employees, which is a staff change of one and two professional Pre-K employees.

The district projects having 10 secretarial and licensed practical nurse employees full-time, four secretarial and LPN employees part-time, 15 on the custodial/maintenance staff full time and six on that staff part-time. The district expects to have four aides on a full-time status, two aides on a part-time Pre-K status; 21 aides part-time and two full time technology/Information Technology workers.

Ready to Learn Block Grant

Previous allocation prior to 2024-2025 was $267,638, which was utilized for the salaries and benefits of almost three kindergarten teachers (class size reduction shown).

This school year, however, additional funding of $574,309 was allocated to the district and it will utilize additional funds to help offset the costs of cyber charter tuition.

These additional funds have been factored into the proposed (preliminary) 2025-2026 budget.

In 2025-2026, the district plans to use these additional funds to offset the salaries and benefits of the full-time certified registered nurse at Renn Elementary and for the Spartan Academy coordinator.

More preliminary budget discussion with the board and public is expected in April.