Schools
Salisbury Faces Declining Enrollment, Rising Costs
Salisbury Township School District's declining enrollment, rising costs, have implications for budgets over next five years, business administrator says.
If does not raise taxes in the next five years, it would need to cut more than $4 million from the budget by 2016-2017 school year, according to Business Administrator Christine Stafford.
However, if the district raised taxes only as much as the tax index allows, the district would need to cut $1.95 million by 2016-2017, Stafford told the school board at its Jan. 16 operations committee.
“One thing that remains constant is the is still diminishing,” Superintendent Robert Gross said.
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With about 140 students per grade, Salisbury High School has the highest enrollment of its four schools, Gross said. He said the district will have to examine what this could mean for staffing in the next few years.
Stafford presented budget projections over the next five years based on the , which the board will vote on at the Jan. 18 meeting.
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Among the budget projections over the next five years:
- Health insurance costs could increase eight percent every year.
- Transit costs, including fuel, could increase 3 percent.
- Public School Employees' Retirement System rate (PSER)will continue to climb, but will not hit the projected peak of 27 percent until 2025. Pennsylvania will continue to reimburse the district 50 percent for social security and PSERS costs.
- Revenue will increase three percent every year with the district's Payment in Lieu of Taxes Agreement.
- Basic education, special education and transportation funding will increase one percent each year.