Board proposes $216M budget

Members will vote on the spending plan Wednesday

EAST CALN >> Downingtown Area School Board members and administration drafted a $216 million budget without a tax increase for the fifth consecutive year. They plan to adopt the budget during their meeting on Wednesday.

School board member Carl Croft, chairman of the finance committee, read a statement on behalf of his committee including board member David Kring and Richard Fazio, chief financial officer for the district. He thanked the board members and administration for their work to create a “budget that not only meets, but

exceeds the needs of nearly 13,000 children while keeping to the board’s goal of a zero percent tax increase.”

Croft had noted during a prior meeting that the process has been harder this year than the past few years to “perform the miracles” of not increasing taxes and balancing the proposed budget.

School board members have plans to adopt the $216 million 2017-18 budget during their meeting on Wednesday without raising taxes. The real estate tax millage is set at 27.182 mills. A mill is equal to $1 for each $1,000 of assessed property value.

“The Downingtown Area School District is posed to do something very few school districts across the state, and maybe even in the country, have done,” Croft read. “We will go five years in a row without a tax increase.”

Croft said that the budget reflects the “district’s efforts to control costs despite large increases in areas such as health care, retirement contributions and staffing needs.” The budget includes a 2.7 percent increase in expenses from last year’s budget.

Croft said that the school board and community members recognize the need to provide their students with a rigorous curriculum. He also praised the past and present school board members

for their planning and focus to improve the education of the students.

“We will now focus our attention to next year,” Croft read, “as we go for six years in a row.”