The Northampton Area School Board voted 8-0 to approve the preliminary budget for 2015-16 at the Jan. 28 meeting.

Approved was the General Fund of $95,188,570, Athletic Fund of $179,120 and Food Services Budget of $2,370,376.

The General Fund is $3,596,417 more than in the 2014-15 budget of $91,592,153, for an increase of 3.93 percent.

The Athletic Budget has an increase of 3.2 percent.

The Food Services Budget has a decrease of 0.5 percent.

There was no discussion of the budget before the vote taken, with one school board member absent.

The school board voted 7-1, with board member Jean Rundle casting the "no" vote, to authorize the NASD administration to seek approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) for exceptions allowed under Act 1 that, if approved, would allow a tax increase by more than the allowed index.

The school board also voted to authorize the NASD administration to advertise that it's seeking the exceptions.

PDE approval of the exception is hoped for by April 13.

The NASD school board and PDE approved the application for an exception last year, which the administration did not implement, for the 2014-15 school budget.

The state-allowed percentage of tax increase, or index, is 2.3 percent for NASD.

The preliminary budget has a millage rate of 50.12, up from 48.89 mills, for an increase of 2.52 percent.

Based on the average NASD property assessment of $57,761.38, the tax would be $2,895, up from $2,823.95, for an increase of $71.05 annually, $5.92 monthly, and $1.37 weekly.

NASD Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik, school board President David Gogel and board Vice President Jennifer Miller have vowed to reduce the tax hike and its percentage.

The budget increase and tax hike were blamed on pension costs and health-care costs when Kovalchik and NASD Business Administrator Terry Leh made their budget presentation at the Jan. 14 school board meeting.

The Jan. 12 and 26 school board meetings were postponed two days because of the threat of inclement weather. The school board next meets at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 9.

According to Koval-chik, $89,846,966, or 94 percent, of the general fund budget is nondiscretionary, meaning the district is locked into it.

The proposed budget includes hiring of seven new personnel to handle an increase in enrollment at the larger 270,000-square-feet new North-ampton Area Middle School which accommodates sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The old middle school is 160,000-square feet and doesn't include sixth grade. The new school is to serve an estimated 1,300 students.

Three new middle school professional staffers are sought.

The administration is seeking one additional middle school security guard and an additional middle school health instructional aide. There is now one middle school nurse. The high school has two nurses and a health instruction aide.

About 100 more students are expected this fall at Northampton Area High School, with enrollment to increase to an estimated 1,900.

Two new high school professional staffers, one each for math and English to bolster students' Keystone exams performance, are sought.

NASD professional staff has gone from 401 in 2012 down to 373 as of 2015, through retirements and attrition, but no layoffs.

Total district staff went from 678 in 2012 down to 640 in 2015, a reduction of 38, also with no layoffs.

Pennsylvania school districts must approve budgets by July 1.

Of the 2015-16 general fund budget, by function area, it's $55,583,130, or 58.39 percent, for instruction; $28,366,236, or 29.80 percent, for support services; $9,889,997, or 10.39 percent, for debt service-transfers, and $1,349,207, or 1.42 percent, for noninstructional services.

Of the 2015-16 general fund budget, the largest portions are salaries and benefits, $62,302,18, or 65.45 percent, with salaries, $38,208,372, or 40.14 percent, and benefits, $24,693,796, or 25.31 percent.

Revenues for the 2015-16 general fund budget are local taxes, 66.29 percent; state revenues, 29.40 percent; and federal, 1.22 percent.

Student lunch prices will be $1.95, elementary, up from $1.90, or a 2.6-percent increase, and $2.15, secondary, up from $2.10, or a 2.4-percent increase.

The 82-page 2015-16 preliminary general budget document is available on the NASD website, northampton.k12.pa.us.

Go to the district Business Office tab and click on the Budget PDF file.