Property owners in Northampton Area School District face a 3.14-percent tax hike, based on the preliminary 2013-14 general fund NASD budget unveiled at Monday night's school board meeting.

Based on the NASD average assessment of $57,376.49, property owners would see their school tax bill rise from $2,676.61 to $2,767.84. This represents an increase of $91.23, annually; $7.60, monthly, and $1.75, weekly.

The 2013-14 NASD general fund budget calls for expenditures of $89,287,609 and revenues of $84,974,699, with a deficit of $4,312,910.

To offset the deficit, NASD would use $1,430,000 in committed funds and $1,200,000 in unassigned funds, with the difference made up by the property tax increase.

Proposed is a 1.59-mill increase, from 46.65 to 48.24 mills.

The 3.14-percent hike is above the NASD allowable 2-percent annual tax hike under a Pennsylvania-indexed formula.

To enact the 3.14-percent hike, NASD would have to file for an exception from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), which school administrators hope to do before the March 7 deadline. PDE must rule on such requests by March 27.

The NASD administration expects to request from the school board at its next meeting, 6:30 p.m. Jan. 28, permission to file for an exception with PDE.

NASD Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik and NASD Business Administrator Terry Leh made a budget presentation that took about one hour at the Jan. 14 board meeting.

According to Leh, the 46.65-mills rate is the second lowest among Northampton County school districts.

The budget calls for no new hires. Replacement of teachers retiring has not been determined. Feb. 1 is the district retirement filing deadline.

"Ninety-three percent of the budget is nondiscretionary. When we're looking at cutting, it's only [the] 7 percent [portion]," Leh said.

The NASD administration plans to ask the school board at the Jan. 28 meeting to vote on advertising the preliminary budget. If approved by the board, the preliminary budget will then be available for public inspection.

The preliminary budget is expected to be placed on the Feb. 11 meeting agenda for a vote.

Several budget reviews, procedures and votes would follow. The commonwealth requires school district budgets to be approved each year by June 30.

During the budget presentation, Leh said that the 2013-14 general fund deficit began at $6,139,463 and would have required a tax increase of 5.8 mills, or 12.43 percent. He said meetings between administrators and department heads reduced the deficit.

Following Monday night's meeting, Kovalchik and Leh explained to the Northampton Press that, even if the PDE grants NASD an exception, it would be up to the board to accept it and enact it, or a portion of it, or none of it.

When asked, Leh said he and Kovalchik will attempt to further reduce the budget expenditure, deficit and, hopefully, the tax increase.

"Joe's [Kovalchik] and my goal is to get it [budget expenditures] down. But Joe and I don't know what is in store."

One variable is the amount of commonwealth education funding, expected to be revealed in Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's Feb. 5 budget address.

Another variable are federal negotiations concerning three still-looming fiscal cliffs: the United States' debt ceiling, the sequester of automatic cuts, and the continuing budget resolution.

Federal decisions could affect Title I, II and III funding, in the amount of a minimum of $500,000, Kovalchik said.

Yet one more variable is the impact of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

"Under Obamacare, there are additional expenditures," Leh said, adding that health-care costs are projected to increase by about 9 percent.

During their budget presentation, Kovalchik and Leh pointed to what they said is good news amid the budget deliberations. The portion of the tax increase needed for the Northampton Area Middle School and Secondary Schools Campus improvement project has been reduced from .52 mills to .29 mills in the 2013-14 budget.

Leh attributed the decrease to refinancing proposed by the administration and approved by the school board late last year.

In the presentation, Kovalchik outlined NASD's goals under the district's mission statement of "Learn, Listen and Lead," including:

· Student Achievement Plan K-12;

· Build the Middle School, Improve the Secondary Campus;

· School Wide Positive Behavior Support;

· Complete District Capital Improvement Projects;

· Improve Technology;

· Collaborate with I-U 20 on Cyber-Education;

· Involve Parents in Learning.

Concerning the School Wide Positive Behavior Support, Kovalchik said, "It has reduced our discipline referrals and improved student behavior."

Regarding Cyber-Education, Kovalchik noted that 26 students are enrolled in the NASD program, with five more expected to enroll in the next week. There are 107 district students enrolled in non NASD cyber schools.

Kovalchik said the district is putting more NASD courses online so "every student can take an online course taught by our teachers."

The general fund budget includes $57,029,899 in salaries and benefits, which breaks down to $37,941,917, salaries, and $19,087,982, benefits.

One factor in the district's increased budget costs is its contribution to the Public School Employees' Retirement System, known as PSERS, which totals $1.2 million in 2013-14.

A big challenge facing district administrators, teachers and students is the Keystone Exams, the commonwealth-wide new standardized test assessments.

"I don't know how well they'll [students] do," Kovalchik said. Remedial classes are required for students who have inadequate Keystone scores.