Bellefonte district advances next budget plans. Here’s why taxes are set to rise
The Bellefonte Area School District is finalizing plans to approve a budget that includes a tax increase, according to plans presented to its school board Tuesday.
The district’s 2025-26 budget is moving forward with the expectation of raising real estate taxes by 2.5%. The increase — which sits at roughly half of the maximum allowable hike under Pennsylvania’s Act 1 index — would mark the fifth straight year Bellefonte’s district has raised taxes after keeping them level for the 2020-21 budget year.
“Over the last 10 years, [tax increases have] been very manageable, I think, considering the costs and the pandemic and some other issues that have come up,” said Ken Bean, the district’s director of fiscal affairs. Speaking before the board, he noted Bellefonte has raised taxes by more than 2% just twice over the last decade, while tax increases have stayed at or below 1% five times.
During budget presentations over the last few months, district administrators cited personnel and health insurance costs as primary drivers behind the proposed final budget, which includes projected revenues of $62.1 million and projected total expenditures of $65.18 million. Bellefonte expects to spend about $400,000 more in health insurance costs during the 2025-26 budget year, raising expected costs to about $6.3 million.
Proposed new positions for the 2025-26 budget year include the following:
- A new teacher for BeLA, the district’s online learning academy
- An elementary-level math interventionist who will provide targeted math instruction to students
- A new social worker, whose direct hire will provide significant savings for the district by replacing a position Bellefonte currently contracts out
- A Multi-Tiered System of Supports and Federal Programs director
- An additional school police officer
Bellefonte’s board first learned of the proposed additions of these positions during a March 18 preliminary budget presentation. Superintendent Roy Rakszawski said the new positions will help Bellefonte’s schools support student achievement, safety, compliance and long-term planning, among other goals.
“When you go back to the priorities that we discussed earlier in this slide deck, we want to balance those and incrementally increase each year to build capacity in our priority areas,” Rakszawski said March 18. “I think the addition of these positions addresses that.”
The proposed budget also includes funding that will help provide new language arts curriculum across Bellefonte schools and combat rising special education costs, which are projected to exceed $10.35 million during the 2025-26 budget year. The district’s athletic fund budget ($1.18 million) will help provide planned upgrades for weight rooms, while the food service budget (roughly $1.2 million) will maintain free breakfast for all students, raise lunch ticket prices by about 10 cents and keep food service funding self-sufficient.
For now, the planned 2.5% tax hike will cost the average homeowner within Bellefonte’s district about $73.45, Bean said during a board presentation Tuesday. That number is expected to drop significantly once the district receives the 2025-26 budget year’s homestead/farmstead allocations, which will provide tax relief for qualifying homeowners. Bean said he expects to have homestead/farmstead figures available for the next board meeting.
Outstanding issues, including the next Pennsylvania state budget and potential changes to the commonwealth’s charter school funding formula, may influence the under-development budget over the coming weeks and months, Bean said. The district is also working to line up debt issues that will finalize funding for the construction of the new Bellefonte Elementary School and planned renovations to Pleasant Gap Elementary School.
Bellefonte’s school board is scheduled to vote and potentially adopt the district’s final 2025-26 budget at its June 10 school board meeting. Before that, board members may need to approve a revised final budget at their May 21 meeting if significant changes necessitate it.
Bellefonte is expected to join at least the State College Area School District in raising taxes for the 2025-26 budget year. State College’s school board approved a proposed final budget that boasts a 4% tax hike, while Centre County’s three other districts have not yet approved proposed budget plans.
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