Upper Perkiomen School District administrators have 12 weeks to reduce a projected $4.822 million deficit in next year's budget. On Monday, Business Administrator Dan Bishop presented the board's Finance Committee with a draft version of the 2025-26 budget.

          Bishop told the committee his office and the administrators would comb through each line item to reduce the difference between projected expenses and revenue. The board expects to formally approve the budget by June 19, its final meeting of the current school year.

          "It's not pretty," Bishop said during the meeting. "But we've got time to go through it."

          The presentation showed projected expenditures at $85.719 million, an 8.4 percent increase over the current year. It places projected revenue at $78.315 million, a 2.4 percent jump.

          At most, the district could generate an additional $2.582 million through a real estate tax hike. In December, the board voted to limit any increase to 4.9 percent, the Adjusted Act 1 Index.

          It terms of increased expenditures, the proposal identified a 27.2 percent hike (an additional $900,000) in the cost of charter school tuition, a 12.9 percent increase in facilities expenses ($366,000), an 11.6 percent jump in benefits ($2.113 million) and a 7.4 percent hike in salaries ($2.314 million). According to the business administrator, the district and its teachers union have not yet worked out a contract for the upcoming school year.

          "It's a big unknown," Bishop said.

          Total revenue for the upcoming school year is projected to increase by $3.628 million to $78.315 million. State revenue is predicted to increase from $23.562 million to $25.350 million

          The district's expense for athletic training could increase dramatically next year. According to Bishop, a contract proposal from the St. Luke's Health Network would cost the district $60,000 next year, more than twice as much as it already pays. He explained that Upper Perkiomen's current six-year contract, at $27,500 annually, expires this year.

          The proposal does not include an increase in services, according to the business administrator. He told the committee members that the company informed him that it needs to start generating funds.

          "What they said to me was that the marketplace has changed," Bishop said.

          St. Luke's provided two contract proposals to the district – a three-year deal with two option years and a five-year arrangement with two option years – according to Bishop. He said that in both proposals, the initial three years of the cost to have three full-time trainers at $60,000, $90,000 and $130,000.

          The business administrator identified St. Luke's and the Lehigh Valley Health Network as the major players in the athletic training field. He said district administrators were planning to speak to a Lehigh Valley Health Network representative Tuesday to gauge the market.

          Member Keith McCarrick compared the contract proposals to a new homeowner getting a favorable rate for signing up for cable television, then receiving a significant hike after few years. He concluded that it would be cost-prohibitive to hire its own trainers. Bishop estimated the district cost of hiring two full-time trainers, with benefits, at approximately $150,000 annually.

          Melanie Cunningham, the board president and committee chair, said administrators must figure out how many hours each trainer actually works. Member Peg Pennepacker, sitting in the audience, stressed patience in resolving the matter.

          "The question to ask is, do we need three trainers?" she said.

           According to Pennepacker, the convergence of the hiring of Robert Kurzweg as the district's athletic director in 2016 and the retirement of athletic trainer Sharon Schoelkopf led to the arrangement with St. Luke's.