Trending
LEWISTOWN -- Mifflin County School District's Board of Directors do not plan to raise taxes higher than the state index.
During its Committee-of-the-Whole meeting Thursday the board agreed to add a resolution to next week's agenda, stating its intention.
Mifflin County School District Chief Financial Officer Melinda Kenepp said this means -- at most -- the board could raise taxes by 2.5 mills when it passes its 2024-25 budget in June.
For the average homeowner, this would translate to about $92.22, or roughly $8 per month.
In total, this would equal about $2 million in additional revenue for the district.
School officials noted that passing this resolution does necessarily mean the district will choose to raise taxes.
A proposed budget will be due to the Pennsylvania Department of Education by May 31 and a final budget is due on June 30.
The board will vote on the resolution on Dec. 21.
Also during Thursday's meeting, Director Diane Stewart voiced concern about a high percentage of students listed on the honor roll.
"The list seemed extremely lengthy," she said. "It seemed like far more than half the class was on the distinguished honor roll."
Chief Academic Officer Steven DeArment said that 57% of seniors are on the distinguished honor roll and 23% are on the regular honor roll.
"Don't get me wrong. It looks great on paper, but 80% of our students in every grade level roughly are getting an A or B plus in every class...that didn't happen in my time." Stewart said. "My question is -- is that earned?"
Board members questioned whether the number of honor roll students correlated with the number of students scoring well on standardized tests.
"It's difficult to correlate honor rolls with standardized test results because standardized tests represent one class and honor rolls are the average of all seven classes they're taking."
DeArment noted that the number of students on the honor roll and distinguished honor rolls trends up from ninth grade to 12th.
"When students are getting to their senior year, they're more mature. Most of the mandatory classes are checked off. They end up taking elective classes that they're more interested in. classes that may not have been readily available to them."
In other matters, the board also opened about whether the district would support a team. Projected expenditures for a team set expenses at about $10,500 per school year.
During its next meeting, the board will take the following action:
•Approve revised rates for KV Bus Line;
•Approve retirements and resignations;
•Approve event staff;
•Approve coaches;
•Approve a proposed 2024-25 school calendar with the first day of school as Aug. 22 and the last day May 27.
The board held an executive session after Thursday's board meeting to discuss topics related to school safety, legal and personnel.