Community Corner

School Tax Hike Less Than Projected

Upper Moreland property owners will pay more under a preliminary spending plan slated for adoption on Tuesday.

Upper Moreland property owners will pay more under a preliminary spending plan slated for adoption on Tuesday. 

But, the $56.9 million budget amounts to about $20 less than previously projected for the average taxpayer, according to figures that the district’s business manager Michael Braun provided to Patch.

Based on the .46 millage increase to 27.68 mills–a millage hike of 1.68 percent–the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $127,470 would pay $58.19 more in school district-derived real estate taxes.

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He credits the district’s ability to overturn business assessment appeals with filtering close to $150,000 more into the budget through a $5 million increase in business property assessments.

“Next year’s promising to get back to where we belong,” Braun said.

Find out what's happening in Upper Moreland-Willow Grovewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The roughly $5 million in upgrades to Upper Moreland Middle School are figured into the budget, as are teacher contracts, which Braun said were renegotiated at lower percent increases last year.

Of the total budget, which is nearly 3 percent higher, salary and benefits are the most costly. To help rein in expenses, the district, for the last few years, has reduced its staff through attrition.

Superintendent Bob Milrod said “relatively flat” student enrollment over the last decade, coupled with “strategic” ways to handle retirements have helped as the district tries to do the same with fewer teachers.

Like neighboring Hatboro-Horsham School District, Upper Moreland is reducing its teaching staff through attrition, instead of furloughs.

Upper Moreland hit its “high point in staffing” during the 2009-2010 school year with 231.7 full-time equivalents for teaching, according to Milrod. 

“It’s gone down every year since,” Milrod said.

For the upcoming school year, he said 221.9 teachers would be on the payroll.

As teachers resign or retire, Milrod said district officials look at ways to “be more creative” in terms of shifting teachers to other buildings and, in some cases, paying secondary level teachers a stipend to teach classes over and above their normal workload.

Out-of-the-box thinking has allowed the district to “make better use” of its staff in order to fill positions.

“Over time we’re able to extract savings,” Milrod said.


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