Greensburg Salem preliminary budget contains nearly $2.4M shortfall

Greensburg Salem School District is facing a nearly $2.4 million shortfall in its preliminary budget for next school year.

The school board has until the end of June to pass a balanced budget for 2024-2025. That can be achieved by cutting expenses, increasing revenue through a tax hike or other means, or a combination of both.

“We are turning over every stone as we go through this budget,” Superintendent Kenneth Bissell said at a school board meeting Wednesday. “There’s a lot of work between now and June. On the administration’s end, we will be doing everything that we can to cut costs.”

Revenues for the upcoming year increased by nearly $1.1 million, or 2.21%, but expenses jumped by about $3.5 million, or 6.99%. Total revenues are more than $50.5 million, but expenses are nearly $52.9 million.

To balance the budget in its current form, the district would need to raise taxes by the maximum 6.19 mills, and still use just over $900,000 from the fund balance. That would raise Greensburg Salem’s tax millage from 89.72 mills to 95.91 mills, a 6.9% increase.

This would mean an increase of $106.47 in taxes for the median household in Greensburg Salem.

A loss of around $1 million in federal pandemic relief funds, which expire this year, contributed to the shortfall, as did rising health care, cyber charter tuition and special education costs.

Over the past two years, health care costs at the district have increased by 22%, according to a presentation given by district business manager Allison Willis.

Willis said the district is hopeful that the funds that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration has set aside for basic education subsidies are approved in this year’s state budget.

Cyber charter costs at the district increased by $1 million, or 50%, since last year, because more students from the region are enrolling in those schools, Bissell said. There were 175 students enrolled in cyber charter schools as of April 2024, which is a 70 student increase from the 2022-2023 school year.

Bissell wants to work on identifying ways to reach out to families whose students are choosing cyber charter schools and see how the district can meet their needs. He expressed his desire to see cyber charter school reform.

“They’re operating in an unfair game,” he said. “Their financial situation is unfair, and there’s not a single taxpayer that has a say in how those funds are spent, and they’re public tax funds. Our public has no voice in how they spend those funds, and there has to be reform.”