Pottsville Area school board members unanimously approved a preliminary budget for the 2025-26 school term Wednesday night.
Although spending is increasing by more than $2.6 million over the 2024-25 term, property tax rates are holding steady.
The district says it’s not increasing taxes for the 2025-26 term because it’s not recommended due to the ongoing Schuylkill County property tax reassessment. However, Pottsville Area says it could have raised property taxes by 2.633 mills (or 5.8%).
Instead, the millage rate will stay at 45.4025.
This will be just the third time since the 2016-17 term that property taxes haven’t been raised within Pottsville Area School District.
A final reading and passage of the budget for the next school term is expected in May.
Pottsville’s $51.8 million budget has revenue coming in from the following sources:
- Local: 37% ($18.9 million)
- State: 60% ($31.2 million)
- Federal: 3% ($1.7 million)
District Business Manager Stephanie Wood told school board members Wednesday that Pottsville Area expects a 64.05% drop in federal funding due to the expiration of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. ESSER funds were handed out by the federal government during the response to the COVID pandemic.
In addition to the decrease in federal funding, Pottsville Area is expecting less from local revenue, too. That’s due in large part to a decline in Local Real estate Assessed Value. The district says its LREAV will be $295,279,815, a drop of about $814,000 from the 2024-25 term.
That’s part of a longer term trend within the district. Though that value did show two years of increase, from 2022 through 2024, LREAV is down more than $1.3 million since 2017.
Increases in assessed values in Norwegian Township, Palo Alto, and Port Carbon were offset by losses of more $1.5 million in the City of Pottsville.
Pottsville Area says its expenses are expected to increase by 5.43% in the next school term. And like most taxing bodies locally, medical insurance for employees is the main driver of that increase.
Next term, Pottsville Area is expecting an 11.47% increase in medical insurance costs, the biggest cause of the increased spending overall.
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