Pennepacker calls for UPSD budget cuts

            The Upper Perkiomen School Board has approximately one month to adjust the size of the tax increase included in the district's budget for next year. Peg Pennepacker signaled a willingness to lead that work.

            "We've got to find ways to figure this out," Pennepacker said. "It's not just this year, it's next year and the year after that."

            Last week, the board member cast the lone vote against a motion to approve the district's 2025-2026 proposed final budget – worth $85.397 million – with a 4.9 percent millage increase. Pennepacker described it as a protest vote.

            "I represent retired folks in this community on a fixed income," she said following the May 8 regular meeting. "Just like them, I don't want to be taxed out of my home."

            Pennepacker, a retired public school administrator, confirmed she has some ideas to save the district money, which will likely be disclosed during upcoming finance committee meetings. She declined to disclose them or an estimate of the total amount of the proposed savings following the board meeting.

            "Fiscal stewardship does not just mean raising taxes," the member said during the meeting. "We need to figure out some creative, out-of-the-box ways to move in the right direction."

            During the meeting, Pennepacker encouraged the other members to attend the committee meetings, scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, June 9. Final budget ratification is expected during the June 19 board meeting.

            "Hopefully we will cut it down over the next few weeks," Vice President and Finance Committee member Keith McCarrick said prior to the vote.

            Last week, the members voted to ratify a proposal with the highest tax increase allowed by law. It would require the average property owner to pay an additional $206.90, according to a presentation by Drew Bishop, the district's business administrator.

            The business administrator described the tax increase, which amounts to a 5.02 percent tax hike, as a worst-case scenario during his presentation to the members. The board's finance committee recommended the rate as a starting point for deliberations.

             President Melanie Cunningham, who also chairs the committee, told the audience that the board's goal is to reduce the final millage rate to four percent. After the meeting, Bishop asserted that the final hike could end up anywhere between 4.9 percent and zero.

            Pennepacker, who requested a roll-call vote on the budget action item, asked Trina Schaarschmidt to resend her an email from 12 months earlier suggesting cuts to multiple departments. Schaarschmidt said she would take another deep dive on the budget figures.

            "Come back in a month and see what the final number is," McCarrick said.

            The budget is available for public inspection at the district's Education Center, located at 2229 E. Buck Road in Upper Hanover and at UPSD.org.

            The members voted to increase the district's contribution to the Western Montgomery Career and Technology Center's 2025-26 budget by 9.84 percent. They will pay $2.759 million, an increase of $247,318, due to an increase in the number of students from the district attending the facility.

            In personnel news, the board approved the resignation of Jennifer Heilner, a special education teacher, at the end of the year; Chelsea Dierolf, a paraprofessional, and Brianna Beaver, a part-time custodian, effective May 16.

            The members also approved the appointments of Sherri Cook and Christine Tumelty as full-time custodians, Olivia Poprocky as a substitute staff nurse and Tracy Carnahan as a paraprofessional.

            The board also appointed 16 mentor teachers for the rest of the current school year. They include Rachael Dishman, Chris Bieler, Jessie Hedrick, Kathy Fehr, Kim Parkins, Briana Wolfgang, Paige Pyatt, Mary Kate Raytek, Rachel Kollar, Olivia Reichley, Robin Ewer, Megan Hoglund, Jen Rosch, Hillary Miller, Danielle Stanek and Tessa Kiesel.