Fox Chapel Area tentative budget calls for small tax bump

Residents in the Fox Chapel Area School District will pay slightly higher property taxes if the board approves a tentative $103 million budget.

As proposed, the 2017-18 budget calls for a tax increase of 0.36 mills, or 1.9 percent, to 19.34 mills.

The owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would pay $3,868 in property taxes, up from $3,796.

Bonnie Berzonski, district coordinator of communications, said the increase will generate an extra $1.1 million to help with district operations.

The school board will meet at 7 p.m. June 5 at O'Hara Elementary School to discuss the budget, before taking a final vote during the regular meeting at 7 p.m. June 12 at the high school.

The budget calls for a 2 percent increase in expenses to $97 million. Highlights of the plan include:

• An increase of 3.6 percent in employee salaries over last year's budget. No reduction in professional staff is anticipated.

• An increase of 1.9 percent in health care premiums.

• A $1 million increase, from $13 to $14 million, in the amount paid by the district to the Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS). The district's contribution rate will go from 30.03 to 32.57 percent.

Berzonski said the nearly 10-percent increase will be partially covered by drawing $500,000 from the district's PSERS-committed reserve fund.

She said new textbooks for English Language Arts and science classes will result in a one-time cost of $900,000. Also, tuition paid by the district for charter schools and other outside agencies continue to rise, Berzonski said. The estimated increase for these expenses is $173,000.

For more, visit fcasd.edu.

Tawnya Panizzi is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-782-2121, ext. 2 or at tpanizzi@tribweb.com or via Twitter @tawnyatrib.