The North Hills school board has unanimously approved a final budget of $83.92 million that raises taxes by 2.2%, or 0.4 mills.

The new tax rate will be 18.65 mills, which would cost the average homeowner an additional $52 a year. The average home value in the district is $135,900.

Two Ross residents protested the tax increase during the work session on May 30 and the June 6 voting meeting.

“Do you seriously think that the taxpayers in this township are not going to be upset by this?” Patricia Popadyn asked during the work session. “This is not going to fly in this township.”

Denise Piveronas spoke at both meetings, saying that Ross residents cannot afford any more school taxes.

“We cannot keep affording your tax increases,” she said. “The teachers keep getting raise after raise after raise. Enough is enough.”

Board President Ed Wielgus said wages have increased a total of 9.49% over the past 11 years.

Mr. Wielgus, who had voted against the proposed final budget in May, said he went through the document “line by line” and could not find any cuts that could be made. More staff was necessary because the district has grown by 476 elementary students.

There are two big expenses that they have no control over, he said: payments to charter schools and payments to the state’s pension fund.

Next year, North Hills will pay $1.2 million for residents to attend charter schools. The tuition that must be paid by the districts is determined by a state formula.

“When you open up a charter school, if it costs $4,000 to $5,000 to educate students, we have to send $11,000 to educate the student,” he said. “Guess where that extra $6,000 goes. It goes into their pocket. It’s for profit.”

He added that the performance of most charter schools “is well below anything that our school district is doing these days.”

Mr. Wielgus said special education costs have increased 18% since 2014 from $7.9 million to $9.5 million.

The district’s required contribution for the state pension system has risen 127% over the past five years, and more than 500% over the past 11 years.

“The biggest piece of that pension bill does not have anything to do with our current teachers,” said Annette Giovengo Nolish, chair of the board’s finance committee. “Pennsylvania, at one time, had a totally funded pension fund. They used the money for other things and did not replace it.”

The budget also includes:

• Funding for six additional teaching positions and a new district director of elementary education.

• $300,000 to add interactive video displays to classrooms replacing older projectors.

• $276,885 for new instruments in all schools to accommodate the growing number of students joining band and to replace instruments that have exceeded their life span.

In other business, several parents whose children attend Eden Christian Academy complained about bus service to the academy’s secondary campus in Ohio Township.

The parents said the bus numbers and drivers are inconsistent. New drivers get lost. Students are getting home hours after school ends.

Parents also complained that their children must ride the bus in the morning to North Hills High School in order to get a bus to Eden.

“Eden students and taxpaying parents should not receive more than students of other schools, but we should not receive less,” said Diane Maxwell.

Superintendent Patrick Mannarino said the district will be doing a bus audit over the summer, and the problems with the Eden Christian buses will be included in the audit.

Sandy Trozzo, freelance writer: suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.

First Published: June 10, 2019, 6:14 p.m.