Shane W Potter

SLIPPERY ROCK – The Slippery Rock Area school board unveiled a preliminary 2026-27 budget with a deficit of around $430,000 at a Monday, May 11, meeting.

The preliminary budget included expenditures of $40,541,989 and revenue of $40,107,810, which leaves a deficit of about $434,180.

The board will discuss how to address the deficit at its May 18 and June 8 meetings before passing a final budget at the June 22 meeting.

If the board were to raise taxes to fund the deficit, the maximum it could raise it would be by 4.76 mills. The current deficit indicates a need just shy of 3 mills, but no decision was made Monday.

The 4.76 millage increase would equate to an $85 tax increase for the averaged assessed homestead in the district, according to district business manager Regan Hess.

Such a millage increase would raise about $690,200, more than covering the deficit.

Hess also included projections on how the budget would look if the board covered the deficit using its general fund balance of around $6.2 million.

Board member Gregory Schiller added two of the costs rising the most relate to special education and employee benefits, which he said the board doesn’t have much control over.

“I will say on benefits, that’s actually shared with our staff — the increases — and I applaud them for the sacrifices they’ve made on this,” he said.

In last year’s budget, the school board approved a tax increase of 2.25 mills, bringing the district’s millage to 110.75. That budget included a deficit of $334,556 with $39,112,826 in expenses and $38,778,270 in revenue.

The district cut a benefits coordinator position, two support staff paraprofessionals, the German foreign language position and kindergarten and second-grade teaching positions at Moraine Elementary School to curb that deficit.

Board members Katee Gearhart and Mark Taylor were absent from Monday’s meeting.

A motion to approve a bid for paving an additional parking section at Slippery Rock Area Elementary School was tabled.