Bethlehem Area School Board members welcomed William Gorman Jr. of Gorman & Associates Public Accountants for the local audit report of 2017-18 at the financial meeting Jan. 14.

Gorman congratulated the board on a second year in a row of no internal or external deficiencies in the Bethlehem schools. He said mistakes may have been made, but they were corrected under a controlled and organized environment.

“I praise what is going in this district right now. I am not an educator. I don’t claim to be, but from a financial reporting aspect-from maintaining the proper records and proper controls that a business office does – it’s superb,” Gorman said.

He further reported the district ended its year with a health insurance trust fund, or fund balance, of $22,828,682.

Chief Financial Officer Stacy M. Gober presented the tentative preliminary budget plan for the 2019-20 academic year.

Gober explained the district’s overall financial strategy for the following academic year is to consider applying for an Act 1 Exception to provide a level of flexibility in the budget.

Act 1, established in 2006, is the state’s form of measuring school district’s property taxes through the changes in wage inflation. The district would apply for an Act 1 Exception of $844,619 under the Special Education Department.

The idea generatedsome debate at the meeting.

However, Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy said it was an option worth considering for the 2019-20 financial plan. He said it would act as an insurance policy in the instance of future obstacles arising, there would be $844,619 in revenue to come through and raise the millage. Another option would be to use the fund balance if the district were to exceed the estimated 2.8 percent of the Act 1 Index.

Gober was in agreement.

She said, “If we don’t do the exception, we would be forced to live at or inside the index.”

The district hopes to be at or below the index by the final budget deadline on June 17.

Gober also announced the district is looking at a total revenue of $285 million, which is a 1.36 percent increase from last year. Gober said most of the revenue is sourced from taxpayers as state funding has declined over the years.

The district’s total expenditures are at $296 million. Salary and benefits, which comprise about 60 percent of the budget, and charter school tuition is at about 10 percent.

The cost of charter schools’ tuition in the district will exceed over $30 million, which is 10 percent over the budget and 15 percent of which is being paid by taxpayers’ dollars.

According to Gober, the charter schools have greatly impacted the district and its students. It was calculated that if the deducted charter school subsidy would be removed from the budget, the district would have received about $40 million in additional revenue.

Gober said, “This would have been an enormous benefit to our community and our taxpayers and would have maintained our budget.”

Roy agreed that the charter school system is wearing down the smaller school districts involved.

The floor further opened to discuss polling places for upcoming elections, such as the primary election in May and the general election in November. The board approved 13 district buildings to be used for polling.

The board also reviewed its decision to participate in the 2019-20 Northampton/Monroe/Pike County Joint Purchasing Board of cooperative fuel oil bid. The agreement was made on Dec. 12, 2018 at 2 p.m.