Perkiomen Valley School District Annual Report 2017-18 Annual Report 2017-18 1 | Page 14

REVENUES
EXPENDITURES
Local 77.16%
Support Services 28.85%
Instruction 57.48%
Operations 1.57%
Capital
Improvements
1.72%
State 21.93%
Debt Service 10.38%
Federal .91%
District Balances Needs of Students & Taxpayers
The Perkiomen Valley School
District has been consistent year
after year in passing budgets
that maintain the district’s out-
standing academic programs
without raising taxes above the
state-mandated index, and the
2017-18 school year was no
exception.
The 2017-18 spending plan was
approximately $105.2 million
and included a 2.36-percent tax
increase, which was below the
2.9 percent cap that the School Board had agreed not
to exceed. Some of the adjustments made to balance
the budget included:
• Reducing staffing by two positions through attrition
• Negotiating a reduction to the proposed increase in
contracted costs with STA (bus company) from 2.9 to
2.5 percent
• Refunding a bond in March 2017 for a savings of
$30,004
• Using $246,000 from the reserve fund set aside for
retirement costs
• Using a total of $974,770 from the unassigned fund
balance to offset the budgetary shortfall
• Using $692,360 from the debt service fund balance
to offset the budgetary shortfall
The 2017-18 budget also saw the addition of an art
teacher at the middle school
level through the reallocation of
funds previously used for middle
school online world language
instruction. The district had tried
piloting online world language
instruction as a way to offer lan-
guage choices of Latin, German
or Chinese, but found that the
online instructional model was
not effective for students and dis-
continued it. The funds once ap-
plied to this program were used
for an additional faculty member,
meaning both middle schools now have an art teacher,
instead of one instructor shared between buildings.
The budget also included funding for a number of capi-
tal improvements (see page 15 for details).
Overall, expenditures increased 5.2 percent over the
2016-17 budget. Rising costs such as contractual sala-
ry increases, debt services payments, health benefits,
retirement benefits, and the STA contract contributed to
the year-to-year budgetary increase.
The School Board and administration have worked hard
to keep taxes below the state index in recent years. The
approved 2017-18 budget included a 2.36-percent tax
increase, which, for the average homeowner with an
assessed home value of $180,000, added up to a $134
increase over 2016-17.