Allegheny Valley School Board passes preliminary budget with no tax hike

The Allegheny Valley School Board has approved a $22.9 million proposed budget for next school year that does not include a property tax increase.

The board voted 6-3 in favor of the preliminary spending plan. It will vote next month on adoption of a final budget.

“With this budget, there was a lot of discussion about having a tax increase,” school board President Larry Pollick said. “But the majority of this board and administration didn’t feel this was an appropriate time to put a tax increase on our residents.

“When you have people lining up to get a box of food, it didn’t make sense to me to suggest that,” he said.

Instead of a tax increase, Pollick said, $300,000 from a fund balance will be used to cover liability among other funding sources. He said the three school board members who voted against the budget, Stephen Puskar, Antonio Pollino and Shawn Whelan, wanted at least a modest tax increase and made a compelling argument.

Calls and emails to school board members Puskar, Pollino and Whelan were not immediately returned.

“They thought instead of using some of the fund balance it was better to use the board’s power to have a tax increase,” said Pollick. “Over the years, we’ve tried to be conscientious about our fund balance, knowing that in public education you have rainy days.

“But it hasn’t been raining — we had a tsunami. So it just made sense to use it.”

The district was forced to spend $1 million on cyber education costs during the pandemic, according to Pollick.

Pollick also said $1.6 million to be spent over a two-year period came from stimulus education fund recovery money. Resignations, he said, will save the district at least $100,000 in salaries.

“The stimulus money was extremely helpful,” Pollick said.