Although Parkland School District Business Manager John Vignone has to incorporate increased costs of most items in the district budget, he had some great news regarding medical costs.

Vignone, at the Jan. 17 school board meeting, reported medical insurance premiums for employees will decrease half-a-million dollars in 2017-18.

“Our medical costs are doing well through our consortium with all Lehigh County schools, except Allentown School District,” Vignone said.

Nevertheless, the overall cost of benefits is expected to increase 5.80 percent to $50.5 million.

A large portion of that figure is payments to the state pension system, PSERs.

Salaries are projected to rise 2.89 percent to $78.9 million.

Vignone stated the total includes all contracted items, two new staff and horizontal movements through the salary scale.

“We do a lot of analysis,” he said. “We analyze every single line item. We go through and analyze every section of the salary budget.”

Superintendent Richard Sniscak noted the exact number of new staff has not been determined but will be discussed later in the process to allow for kindergarten registration and possible changes in enrollment.

Vignone reported a plus for the new budget is $1,051,000 leftover from 2015-16.

“This rolls into the fund balance which accumulates through the years,” Vignone said. “It is $35.4 million now.

“We can borrow from there to balance the budget. Six million dollars was appropriated in 2016-17 from the fund balance.”

The business manager pointed out the uncertainty of 2017-18 budget preparation six months ahead of its adoption.

“This is where we are today,” Vignone said. “Where we will be in June, we do not know.

“It depends somewhat on state funding and electricity and petroleum usage.”