While other school districts are raising taxes or tapping into reserves to help pay the bills next year, Wilkinsburg is doing what many residents have dreamed about for years.
The school board this month passed a $30 million budget that reduces the millage rate by 3.13 mills, which, according to district leaders, means it no longer has the highest property tax rate in Allegheny County.
“I feel more hopeful than I ever have about the whole Wilkinsburg Borough, not just the school district,” said school board member Ed Donovan.
Property owners in Wilkinsburg will now pay school taxes of 29.5 mills. While the state has yet to compile the list of each district’s millage rates for 2018-19 -— final budgets were due June 30 — it appears based on last year’s rates that Wilkinsburg no longer takes the top spot for highest school taxes in Allegheny County. The rate of 29.5 mills is slightly less than the rate that taxpayers in the Brentwood School District paid last year.
The Wilkinsburg board approved the tax decrease last month in an 8-1 vote, with member Marcia Jones dissenting.
It’s a significant milestone for a school district that hemorrhaged students and funds for years, causing the board to raise taxes to make up the difference and ultimately forcing a decision to close its century-old high school and pay Pittsburgh Public Schools to enroll Wilkinsburg’s middle- and high-school students at Westinghouse Academy in Homewood.
“I look at it as a great comeback,” school board President LaTonya Washington said about the tax decrease. “We’re at a point where we’re taking a stand.”
The school board discussed lowering taxes last year but wasn’t able to make it work. Yet it has always been part of the plan for the board and Superintendent Linda Iverson, who was hired in 2016 to right the struggling district, stabilize its finances and boost student achievement.
The challenge was finding a way to cut taxes and spending without also making cuts to student programs, Ms. Iverson said.
“It was a win-win [this year] where we were able to do both,” she said.
The tax reduction comes as the school district is undergoing an ambitious plan to reinvest in its two elementary schools now that the secondary students are settled at Pittsburgh Westinghouse. The plan includes a multimillion-dollar renovation of Turner and Kelly elementary schools, new language and music programs and busing for students who live more than a mile from their school.
“What’s insanity? Doing the same thing over and expecting different results,” Ms. Washington said. “Well, none of us are insane, so we have to think outside the box. We have to change the district as a whole, because what we had been doing wasn’t working.”
Pamela Macklin, president of Wilkinsburg Borough Council, said that even though the school and borough taxes are still high, the millage reduction was welcome news, especially if the school district does not have to compensate by cutting resources for students.
“For the people that have persevered here for decades, I think it’s a positive sign,” she said. “What does that mean in dollars and cents? Probably not a great deal, but it is an indication that we’re moving forward.”
The millage reduction equates to roughly $1.1 million in revenue, but business manager Richard Liberto said the district hopes the tax collection rate in the district will go up as more people are able to pay a lower rate. And the district will still have a surplus of around $300,000, he said.
Seven employees retired after last year, Ms. Iverson said, and the district replaced four of them at lower salaries. The district has also made other spending cuts — switching scheduling software, for example — and partnered with organizations who have helped either split costs with the school district, made in-kind donations or awarded grants. Wilkinsburg also saved money by moving the secondary students to Westinghouse and paying tuition.
The new budget includes about $98,000 in grants or donations for items like a community garden, STEAM learning and the district’s new after-school dinner program, Ms. Iverson said.
“We were able to show how much money was returned to this district,” she said. “The board was in a better position to look at where they could reduce some of the millage rate.”
Mr. Donovan said it was important not only that the board reduce school taxes, but that it reduce them enough so that they no longer are the highest. Wilkinsburg no longer has the worst taxes in Allegheny County, he said, and he hopes numbers released in October will show Wilkinsburg schools no longer have the worst scores.
“When we can get grades to go up and taxes going down, that helps the whole borough,” Mr. Donovan said.
Elizabeth Behrman: Lbehrman@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1590 or @Ebehrman on Twitter.
First Published: July 10, 2018, 10:00 p.m.