At its June 9 meeting the Quakertown Community School Board voted, 6-3, to increase the school tax after its finance committee recommended a two percent tax increase.

            The new millage rate will be 172.21. Currently, the rate is 168.83. The average assessed value of the QCSD homestead/farmstead is $26,350. A tax increase for a typical homestead/farmstead will be $89.06.

            The budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 totals $124,501,917. This includes the budgetary reserve. 

            In preliminary discussions, a projected budget deficit of $3,668,624 was based on a four percent tax increase. The original budget included both a revenue and an expenditure of $1 million for any unexpected grant funding or spending.

Upon further review, the finance committee reduced both amounts by $675,000.

            There was mixed opinion among board members regarding the tax increase. Charles Shermer said, "This is a little more aggressive than we're used to. There is an opportunity to be better than this. A two percent to cover inflation. However, there is an opportunity to budget better."

            Board member Ron Jackson also expressed his concern about the increase. "This is the eighth budget as a member of the board that I've seen. I've seen this five-year projection chart every year. It's the same exact chart. We should be embarrassed we didn't do better."
            Other board members were comfortable with the tax increase, stating that it was necessary.  Jackson, Brian Reimers, and Glenn Iosue opposed the increase.

            All board members were in agreement that the budget should be evaluated starting in October instead of January.

            In other news, the superintendent's report included a recommendation to include social-emotional learning (SEL) in the curriculum for grades six, seven and eight.

            SEL includes self-awareness and self-management concepts such as regulating emotions, needs, and preferences specific to a context, identifying and selecting coping skills relevant to adverse situations, identifying and evaluating distractors that impact goals, and social problem-solving skills such as teamwork and respect.    

            Dr. Lisa Hoffman gave the presentation, which sparked discussion among board members.

            Jackson asked, "How does this fit into a math class?" He said he could understand its use in other classes like social studies or history, but not math or even science.

            Hoffman replied, "It's a way of doing business … a way of talking to a student when they are struggling in math."

          "Teachers are trained to teach. Let them teach," said Jackson, who continued to critique the framework.