Tax rate won’t rise due to cuts, savings

The North Allegheny school board last week introduced a proposed final budget that holds the line on taxes and it hired an assistant principal for the senior high school.

The $157.47 million spending plan is $1 million less than the preliminary plan passed in February. The district plans to have staff travel to fewer conferences next year and has deferred additional paving and telephone work at the senior high school. It will also save money because it switched health insurance plans last year, said Kermit Houser, assistant director of finance.

“I’m glad for the second year in a row that we did not have to raise taxes,” said board president Kevin Mahler, citing the board’s move a few years ago to start a fund to mitigate increases inthe state pension costs.

North Allegheny’s contribution to the Pennsylvania State Employee Retirement System has risen from $14 million in 2014-15 to $23.3 million in 2017-18 and is expected to reach $30 million in 2021-22.

For 2017-18, the property tax rate will remain 18.0011 mills, which means a $3,600 annual school tax bill for a property owner whose home is assessed at $200,000.

A vote on the final budget is scheduled for June 28.

The new assistant principal at the senior high school is Angela McEwen, who is currently an assistant elementary principal in the East Allegheny School District. She will begin her new job June 12 and will be paid $100,000 a year. She replaces Matthew Buchak, who is moving to Marshall Middle School.

Ms. McEwen holds a bachelor’s degree from Waynesburg College and a master’s degree with principal certification and superintendent eligibility from California University of Pennsylvania. She taught middle and high school math before becoming a principal.

“I couldn’t have come on a better night when I got to see the achievements of several students,” she said. “I look forward to becoming part of the North Allegheny family.”

“Things exist today that just didn’t exist years ago,” superintendent Robert Scherrer said.

Among the recommendations are implementing STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — activities into elementary science; updating the sequence so that all students take biology in ninth grade instead of just advanced students; and adding a one-credit chemistry course at the senior high that includes a lab.

Three recommendations involve “environmental awareness,” including adding an Advanced Placement environmental science elective at the senior high.