KARNS CITY — Karns City Area’s School District’s board moved forward with a proposed 2025-26 budget of around $26.5 million, along with a $5 million bond to fund smaller capital projects, at its Monday, May 12, meeting.

Under the proposed budget, Butler County residents in the district would see a slightly larger increase in their millage rates compared to Armstrong and Clarion county residents.

The board voted unanimously to send the proposed budget to public inspection, which will be posted to the district’s website. Expenditures and expected revenue would both be set at $26,547,565 in 2025-26.

In recent weeks, the board made efforts to get rid of an expected deficit of tens of thousands of dollars in the proposed budget, including renegotiating the time period of payments to vendors for items such as textbooks and classroom technology.

Under the proposed plan, Butler County residents would see a millage rate of 105.71, up from 102.89. Armstrong County’s would be 39.32, up from 38.53; while Clarion County’s would be 40.21, up from 39.09.

As a multi-county school district, Karns City deals with different taxation ratios from three different counties, superintendent Eric Ritzert said. He said almost half of the district’s residents come from Butler County, where home value is appreciating faster, and the residents of the other counties have a lower tax burden because of this.

“Each county sets its own ratio as far as taxation. And so that ratio drives that formula for Butler County residents, based off of the average of market value of homes in the county, and the number of residents, it equates back to what is the millage in that county needed to be to raise the money,” Ritzert said.

Evan McGarvey, Karns City’s director of business affairs, said during the meeting the school’s adjusted index currently allows for a 5.7% tax increase, which would raise an additional $325,000 but that the district did not want to raise taxes by that much.

“I don’t want to do that, I don’t think that’s necessarily the way to go. So I looked at what would be comfortable for the district and what I think would be reasonable for the taxpayers is about $150,000 generated,” McGarvey said.

Ritzert said just under half the $5 million bond would go toward replacing the roof at the high school. The remaining amount would be used for other projects, such as new turf at the athletic field, a new track surface, new stadium lighting and bleacher upgrades for handicapped accessibility, and new fencing around the stadium.

“We’re currently soliciting quotes and bids so that we can see what we can afford to do with that money,” Ritzert said.