District school board member steps down

Panel also limits tax hike to 3% maximum

The Rev. Jamison Hardy, who has served on the Peters Township School Board since 2013, resigned last week as he is moving to Michigan for his job.

Rev. Hardy is bishop/president of the English District of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, which has offices in Michigan. He previously was the pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Peters Township until 2015.

“We are moving along as planned, even though COVID-19 has put a monkey wrench into everything.” The Rev. Jamison Hardy chair, board’s finance committee

The resignation was accepted during a meeting in which the board voted unanimously to not raise taxes for the 2021-22 school year by more than the 3% allowed by the state.

The Peters Township School Board has 30 days to fill Rev. Hardy’s seat.

The replacement will serve out the remainder of his term, which expires the first Monday in December.

While there is no set process mandated by state law for appointing a replacement, Peters solicitor Jocelyn Kramer said that in the past the board has advertised the vacancy to the public.

The board is accepting applications for the vacant seat and plans to interview the applicants at public meetings the first week of February and vote on the appointee at its Feb. 16 voting meeting.

Information on how to apply can be found online at: ptsd.k12.pa.us/BoardApplications.aspx.

Regarding the tax rate, under Act 1, the state’s measure of determining tax increases justified by wage inflation, Peters can increase taxes by 3% — which equates to 0.4248 mills in taxes.

Taxes in the Peters Township School District currently sit at 14.16 mills and if the board votes later this year for the full 3% increase, taxes would be 14.5848 mills, or about $1,458 per every $100,000 of assessed property value.

Rev. Hardy, who chairs the board’s finance committee, said a tax increase is likely because of the district’s debt service.

“As we predicted, this is going to be a difficult year financially,” he said, adding that things should “even themselves out” within the next three to five years.

“We are moving along as planned, even though COVID-19 has put a monkey wrench into everything,” he said.

The board will vote on a final budget in June.