Montour Final Budget Includes No Tax Increase

The Montour School Board approved the district's final 2012-2013 budget Thursday totaling $58,011,506 in an 8-to-0 vote. 

The budget holds the line on tax rates in the district at 18.9 mills and also marks a 7 percent spending increase from the previous year's spending plan. Board member Cynthia Morrow was not present at the meeting. 

The board did not approve any major staffing revisions or furloughs for the upcoming academic year, but board solicitor Donald Palmer said reductions could come at a later time. 

Superintendent Donald Boyer said in May that no teacher furloughs were planned in the district. 

Board members, who did not comment on the budget, also approved an agreement between the school district and the Montour Transporation Eduction Support Professionals organization. 

The district earlier this year to shutter Ingram Elementary and combine grades into the district's Forest Grove and Burkett elementary schools. Boyer said the move that would trim nearly $2 million from earlier versions of the district's 2012-2013 budget. 

Under the measure, students in kindergarten through second grade willl attend class at the Forest Grove Elementary building and third and fourth-graders will attend Burkett. School officials cited declining test scores and enrollment as reasons for Ingram's closure.