New Kensington-Arnold School Board schedules special meeting for budget vote

A vote this week will reveal if New Kensington-Arnold School District will seek to raise property taxes by more than its state-imposed limit for the 2025-26 school year.

The board is scheduled to hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the boardroom at Valley High School “for the purpose of voting on the Act 1 resolution,” a notice from the district says.

The board’s regular monthly meeting on Jan. 7 was postponed because of heating problems at the high school. Classes were not held at the New Kensington school that day because a boiler was down and needed repair, according to Superintendent Chris Sefcheck.

However, no resolution regarding the budget or Act 1 appeared on the posted agenda for the canceled meeting.

According to the state’s timeline for the 2025-26 budget process, Jan. 30 is the deadline for districts such as New Kensington-Arnold to make the “proposed version of (a) preliminary budget available for public inspection” or pass a resolution stating it will not raise the rate of any tax by more than its Act 1 index.

For 2025-26, New Kensington-Arnold’s index, or limit, is 6%. To exceed that limit, the district would have to seek voter approval through a referendum or, as is typically done statewide, receive exceptions from the state to avoid a referendum.

Before the regular meeting on Jan. 2, Jeff McVey, the district’s business manager, said the district would “most likely be preparing and filing a preliminary general fund budget.”

If the district does not commit to staying within its tax increase limit, it must pass a preliminary budget by Feb. 19, the state timeline states.

McVey did not respond Thursday when asked if the board will be asked to vote on a proposed version of the preliminary budget or a resolution to stay within its index at the special meeting next week.

The district’s $47.6 million budget for the current school year carried a 1.5% property tax increase. The limit for the current school year had been 8%.

In addition to the special meeting next week, the board will have a finance committee meeting immediately after the special meeting. Both meetings are open to the public.

Both meetings will be available virtually. Information for joining the meetings online will be available on the district’s website, nkasd.com, the day of the meeting.