PR School Board Approves Preliminary Budget—But There's a Surprise Attached

The $69.4 million budget includes a 4.24 percent tax increase ... or does it?

The Pine-Richland School Board approved a preliminary $69.4 million budget with a 4.2 percent real estate tax increase Monday night, but there was a surprise attached. Finance and School Services Director Dana Siford told the board it is likely the state will limit a tax increase to 3 to 3.5 percent. The Pennsylvania Department of Education gets involved whenever the school board proposes a tax increase that exceeds its 2 percent index defined by Act 1. The school district can apply for exceptions to the Act 1 index, but the state designates only four categories. Pine-Richland planned to file for exceptions based on rising retirement and special education costs. By adopting the preliminary budget on Monday, the school board gave Siford the…

•  4 Comments
• Photos (1)

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor: PR School District Tax Increase Strongly Opposed

Daryl and Michelle Festa say they moved into the Pine-Richland School District deliberately due to its reputation and performance, but pulled their four children out because of "drastic changes."

To the Editor: We strongly oppose any tax increase. We believe the Pine-Richland Administration and Board, under (Superintendent) Dr. Mary Bucci, have failed our students, parents and the community by recklessly spending and implementing Progressive educational fads across all grade levels.  This has both a cost impact and an educational quality impact (and may be one of the reasons that the cost for cyber school tuition is rising).  We moved into this district deliberately due to its reputation and performance, but we pulled our four children out of PR because of the drastic changes initiated by Dr. Bucci. There have been huge costs with this transition to a globally-focused school district that seems to care most about keeping up with …

•  5 Comments
• Photos (1)

Kelly Burgess

11:14 am on Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Can you tell us what they were? I would like to know, because I am aware of only one, which affected a very small number of students and had nothing to do with the actual educational process. I did not agree with it, necessarily, but I completely understood it. I would be very interested in hearing about unilateral decisions made by Dr. Bucci that did affect the educational process, curriculum …   more ›