GASD Board Votes No to 2020-21 Tax Increase

School Superintendent Jason Perrin proposed two possible budgets to the Gettysburg Area School District Board of Directors, one for a .5 percent tax increase in the 2020-21 tax year and one for no tax increase.

school board chart

Perrin said the difference between the two budgets concerned the amount of money needed to be drawn from the school’s safety net fund balance.

Perrin said that with the .5 percent increase there would be a $4.2 million budget shortfall that would have to be covered by the fund balance and that with a zero percent tax increase the shortfall would be $4.4 million.

The board had extensively discussed a similar proposal at a prior board meeting.

After a short discussion the board unanimously voted for the no tax increase option.

In other business, Assistant Superintendent Christine Lay presented results of a parent survey about the emergency online learning program.  Overall the results were positive with over half the parents finding the program satisfactory:

school board chart
Results from 450 elementary school parents (Secondary school results are similar)

Overall the survey found almost 80 percent of the parents who responded were satisfied with communications from the school district:

school board chart 2
Results from 448 elementary school parents (Secondary school results are similar)

Compete results of the survey can be found here.

The board also discussed major capital improvements to the high school that would be made in the summer of 2021.  One project would expand the size of the weight room to accommodate the large increase in the school’s wrestling program.

The board also discussed plans for the potential reopening of the district’s sports programs. The draft proposal specifies conditions for reopening including face mask use and social distancing.

The proposal will need to be approved by the board in a future meeting.

+ posts

Charles (Chuck) Stangor is Gettysburg Connection's Owner, Publisher, and Editor in Chief. I would like to hear from you. Please contact me at cstangor@gettysburgconnection.org.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x