Unsure how much state funding will be available for public schools, Pottsville Area has been encouraging its administrators to tighten the district's financial belt.
"It's tough budget times for many districts. We've always been very frugal, and careful, how we spend," Superintendent Jeffrey S. Zwiebel said Wednesday night following a budget meeting with the school board's Finance Committee meeting at the Howard S. Fernsler Academic Center.
Administrators said they're working to trim expenses without sacrificing educational programs. For example, high school Principal Tiffany Reedy insisted the district continue to print student publications on paper.
Meanwhile, school board President John F. Boran encouraged the district to reduce subscriptions to paper periodicals and find more resources via the Internet.
"Print is just way too expensive," Boran said.
The high school will be adding new courses next year, including psychology, introduction to business and new English classes, including one focusing on the fiction of Pottsville's own John O'Hara, Reedy said.
"So you're not cutting curriculum. You're adding to it," Zwiebel said.
"We are," Reedy said.
The district's 2013-14 budget will be "about $40 million," according to David J. Delenick, district business manager.
"At this point, I don't anticipate a tax increase but we have a lot of figures to review over the next few weeks," Delenick said.
If the school district approves a budget this year without a tax increase, it would be its eighth consecutive year to do so.
The tentative budget will be unveiled in May, Delenick said.
During the two-hour session Wednesday, the district's principals and special education administrators presented tentative budget figures, showing they are all working to reduce their budgets for 2013-14.
Following are the budgets for each school for 2012-13, followed by the tentative 2013-14 budgets for each: elementary, $183,200, $164,142; middle school, $191,964, $169,635; high school, $268,394, $247,829; and special education, $149,000, $124,582.
On Jan. 16, the board approved a resolution stating it will not increase school district taxes for the 2013-14 school year at a rate that exceeds an index calculated by the state Department of Education.
The millage rate is 34 mills. According to the resolution, the district isn't allowed to increase taxes beyond the state department index, which is 2.4 percent of that, Delenick said.
The school board's Finance Committee will meet again at 6:15 p.m. April 17.
