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Blairsville-Saltsburg School Board Wednesday approved a tentative 2009-10 budget of about $28.7 million that will hold the line on property taxes.

The proposed spending plan represents a decrease of $99,263 each in revenues and expenditures from the current 2008-09 budget.

School board President Beverly Caranese noted it is the first time in about eight years that district taxpayers have not faced a millage hike, a fact she attributed to diligence by the board and the efforts of Business Manager Eric Kocsis and Superintendent Dr. Joseph Marasti in "carrying out the board's request that every effort be made to hold the line on expenditures in the coming year."

Board member Ed Smith pointed out that savings resulting from the deletion of five teaching positions through attrition also have a lot to do with holding the tax line in 2009-10. He said five of 11 instructors who are set to retire won't be replaced.

School officials said the decision to eliminate the positions was made possible by declining student enrollment in the district.

It's expected that one teaching position will be eliminated at Saltsburg Middle/High School along with four elementary positions split between the Blairsville and Saltsburg ends of the district.

Kocsis reported that retirements are contributing to a projected decrease of $460,235 in salary expenditures next year, along with a recent turnover in multiple administrative positions. That also will mean a $40,350 drop in costs related to health and life insurance benefits.

He said the district should see an overall increase of $172,976 in operating costs in 2009-10. The biggest single increase will be $153,738 for special education programs.

But the overall cost figure is being offset by lack of expenditures attributed to the Classrooms for the Future grant program that has benefited the district in past years but will be discontinued in 2009-10.

The loss of that program, which funded computer technology improvements, translates into a $272,239 decrease in expenditures but also a $332,239 decrease in revenues.

Kocsis said the district also is losing out financially due to a growing number of students who are enrolled in charter schools and non-public schools. He said next year, Blairsville-Saltsburg expects to pay $141,000 for educating such children but will receive just $84,989 in related reimbursements.

Cafeteria fund expenditures and revenues are both expected to increase by a little under 5 percent next school year, which takes into account a 25-cent hike in school lunch prices recently approved by the board.

The tentative 2009-10 budget will be open for public inspection pending final approval at a special June 24 meeting at Saltsburg Elementary School.

It calls for keeping property taxes at 126.34 mills in Indiana County and at 119.76 mills in Westmoreland County.

Kocsis reported that 55 district parcel owners in Indiana County and 11 others in Westmoreland County will not pay any school property tax in the coming year due to revenues the district will receive from state gaming and will pass along to those who have qualified for homestead or farmstead exemptions.

He said 3,674 other such property owners will each receive a $305 break on their tax bills.

According to Kocsis, the new district budget calls for expending $20,731 from the capital reserve fund for various projects this summer.

They include renewing the 10-year warranty on overhead lights at both the Blairsville and Saltsburg football fields, at a cost of $5,100 each; replacing carpeting with tile in a Blairsville Elementary School classroom, for $1,795; repairing cracks in the Blairsville school campus parking lot, for $6,775; and replacing carpeting in the Blairsville High School guidance office, for $6,775.

He noted that those expenditures do not involve funds set aside for the district's planned Saltsburg school building project.

Caranese stressed that the school board was able to hold the line on taxes in the coming year despite taxpayer concerns about the district's Saltsburg K-12 building project that will include upgrades to the community's middle/high school and the construction of a new elementary addition.

Bids for that project came in at $13.7 million, well under budget, sparking a suggestion that some of the excess bond issue that had been earmarked for the construction could be used to fund other capital improvements on both ends of the district.

Solicitor Jack Cambest said the district was awaiting approval of required PlanCon F project documents, which it hoped would be granted by state educational officials by today.

If that approval is promptly in place, Cambest said the district remains hopeful it can break ground for the building project at the beginning of June.

In a related matter, the school board approved a settlement of $62,000 and mutual release agreement with the architectural firm of HHSDR, Inc.

The firm was employed by a previous version of the school board to work on a different building project that would have created a district-wide consolidated high school at the Blairsville school campus.

But the company was let go after the current board came into power in December 2007, scrapped the consolidation plan and soon hired a new architect to design the current Saltsburg K-12 project.

In other business Wednesday, the school board hired two new secondary physical education teachers, Laura Thompson and Steven Thomas.

Thompson will be paid $47,773, at the fifth step of the bachelor salary scale, while Thomas will be paid $46,173, at the third step of the bachelor scale.

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