The 2019-20 proposed general fund budget for Northampton Area School District was approved May 6 by a vote of 7-2 by the NASD Board of Education with a tax hike of 2.69 percent.

The proposed general fund budget is $110,527,281.

The vote approved the athletic fund of $251,935 and the food services fund of $2,414,163.

Also, the vote authorized the NASD administration to advertise and make the proposed budget available for inspection to the public.

The proposed budget is expected to be available on the NASD website, nasdschools.org, as of May 10, NASD Business Administrator Terry Leh said after the meeting.

The administration and school board timetable for the 2019-20 general fund budget is to adopt the final budget by the June 10 school board meeting. School district budgets are required by commonwealth law to be approved by June 30.

The 2.69-percent tax hike is a 1.45-mill increase, from 53.83 mills to 55.28 mills.

Based on the 2018 average assessment of $59,444, which comprises 70 percent of the district, and a 2018-19 tax bill of $3,199.87, the new tax bill would be $3,286.06.

That’s a $86.19 annual increase, $7.18 monthly increase and $1.66 weekly increase.

Voting against the budget were school Director Roy Maranki and school board President David Gogel.

When asked after the meeting why he voted against the proposed general fund budget, Gogel said, “I wanted a lower percentage,” referring to the tax hike.

When asked after the meeting why he voted against the proposed general fund budget, Maranki said, “It would be a tragedy to see anyone lose their home over the tax increase. Twenty-six percent of the borough’s residents are [senior citizens].”

The May 6 school board vote reflects the straw poll taken at the April 29 meeting when Maranki said he would oppose the budget. Gogel was absent at that meeting.

During the 2019-20 budget deliberations, Gogel and Maranki have consistently favored a lower and even zero-percent budget increase.

NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik said after the May 6 meeting that 2019-20 budget deliberations were not over. Changes could still be made prior to the June 10 final budget vote.

The NASD Board of Education next meets 6:30 p.m. May 20 in the administration building, 2014 Laubach Ave., Northampton.

The school board is meeting on the first and third Mondays of the month, rather than the usual second and fourth Mondays because of the May 27 Memorial Day holiday.

The 2.69-percent tax hike would keep the increase below the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) 2019-20 Act 1 Index for NASD of 2.8 percent.

The PDE approved the NASD request for exceptions allowed under Act 1, whereby the district could increase the tax rate more than 2.8 percent. The PDE also approved NASD exceptions in previous years. To date, NASD has not implemented an exception.

To achieve the 2.69-percent hike, Leh and Kovalchik said the 2019-20 general fund budget was lowered by a net reduction of $653,000.

Factors Leh and Kovalchik cited to achieve the reduction were:

• Local revenue increases in real estate and Access funds reduced the budget by $411,000.

• Ten professional staff retirements were replaced, reducing the budget by $389,000.

• Administrative building and department reductions of 10 percent reduced the budget by $356,400.

The 2.69-percent increase includes the PDE-mandated positions of one high school guidance counselor, one high school special education teacher (funded through Access), one middle school special education teacher (funded through Access) and one elementary school special education teacher (funded through Access).

In addition to the tax increase, which would generate $1,605,465, the district would use $3,420,000 from the district fund balance to balance the 2019-20 budget.

The 2019-20 budget was unveiled by Kovalchik and Leh at the Jan. 14 board of education meeting.

In other business at the May 5 board meeting, school directors voted 9-0 to:

• Accept the 2019-20 property tax reduction allocation of $1,470,640.73 to reduce property taxes and set the homestead-farmstead exclusion at the same fixed amount.

• Approve a last-minute addition to the agenda for the administration to proceed with replacement of a partial portion of the roof of Northampton Area High School at a cost of $2,197,711 with the contract going to Jottan Roofing Inc., Florence, N.J.

Kovalchik said work on the high school roof is expected to commence June 17, with the plan to complete it before the first day of the 2019-20 school year.