A proposed preliminary budget approved by the Avonworth School Board will include a higher tax rate -- and more revenue -- than first expected.

In the week since its work session on Jan. 9, officials recalculated the proposed 2012-13 budget based on the latest decision in the Allegheny County reassessment effort that will allow local governments to use the old assessment numbers this year while the reassessment is completed.

Although some additional revenue is expected to find its way into the Avonworth School District’s 2011-12 budget, officials are being advised to remain cautious with expenditures as they vote next Monday on a final spending plan that includes no property tax millage rate increase.

The public hearing on the proposed budget, held prior to the school board’s work session last Monday, was a non-event, with no one from the public having any comments or questions.

The next step in the construction of a primary center in the Avonworth School District was successfully made Monday night, as the school board approved the purchase of 8.45 acres of property.

A crowd of about 150 people -- most of them parents of young children and elementary school staffers -- watched a presentation by board member Patrick Stewart that outlined financial issues facing the district and argued in favor of construction of the $20 million facility that will ease overcrowding in the current elementary school by moving grades K-2 to another building.

Avonworth officials have been warned that they will need to start now to cut costs for next year, with a 2011-12 budget deficit projected at $1 million.

School board members were told by a board member at their work session on Monday that the district’s fiscal fate was cast when the board approved the new teachers’ contract.

Director of fiscal management Brad Waters said that this year’s $710,000 deficit will grow to $1 million in the next school year, he said, as revenues are projected to increase by $500,000, and expenses by $882,000.

Experts are telling the Avonworth School Board to act now to secure financing for the the construction of an $18 million primary center.

What began as an attempt to take advantage of lower interest rates to refinance two current bond issues has blossomed to include the nearly $16 million Avonworth still needs to build the new school.

By ROBERTA SLANINA O’BRIEN

Avonworth School Board members will vote next Monday to approve a budget that calls for a .7 mill property tax increase, which is one-tenth of a mill more than what was projected in the district’s preliminary budget.

The board has the permission of the state to increase property taxes a maximum of .8 mills this year, thanks to exceptions granted by the state department of education .

The Avonworth School Board is expected to vote Monday on a proposed 2010-11 budget that will increase the property tax millage rate by six-tenths of one mill.

The $22,381,375 spending plan will require a transfer from the district’s reserve fund of about $766,000, according to Avonworth director of finance Brad Waters, which will put the fund balance at 8 percent of the district’s operating budget.

The Avonworth School Board could vote Monday to increase the price of breakfasts and lunches offered at the schools by 20 cents per meal.

District finance director Brad Waters said at the board’s work session on Monday that meal prices had not increased in three years, and were less than what other districts charged.

Waters said that the food service program at Avonworth generally breaks even or makes a small profit, requiring no contribution from the district’s general fund. As with any other program, however, production costs have increased, Waters said.

Following state deadlines so it can file for exceptions to raise the property tax millage rate higher than the state index without a voter referendum, the Avonworth School Board adopted a preliminary bud-get for the 2010-11 school year at its meeting on Monday.

The district plans to file for an exception to the referendum rule because the amount schools will have to contribute to the Pennsylvania School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) will nearly double next year.

For the first time since the Act 1 tax relief law went into effect, neither of the local school districts will certify to the state next month that they will not raise property taxes beyond the inflation index. Instead, both will leave open the option of millage hikes to cover contributions to the state retirement fund.

The reason? A dramatic increase in the contribution rate for the Pennsylvania School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) that is expected to get much higher in the coming years.

Bond refinanced

Refinancing Ohio Township's current bond will produce about $87,000 for capital projects.

The Ohio Township Supervisors voted unanimously at their Oct. 5 meeting to refinance the debt. Township manager John L. Sullivan Jr. said that favorable interest rates had allowed refinancing with no extension of the amount or term of the bond. Instead the township will receive $87,000 as a refund or reimbursement for capital projects, he said.

Contract extension