North Hills School District: No Tax Hike For 2020-21

ROSS TOWNSHIP, PA - Despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, the North Hills School District will hold the line on taxes for the 2020-21 school year and there will be no teacher furloughs.

Superintendent Patrick Mannarino made those pledges during an April 16 school board meeting held virtually via Zoom. Mannarino will present a budget for the upcoming fiscal year to the board on April 30 and the spending plan is expected to be adopted on June 4.

“We knew this year’s budget was going to be a difficult one but we are trying to not raise taxes during this scary and uncertain time for the families in our community,” Mannarino said.

“There are a lot of pieces to our budget that are essential. We had several planned additions to
ease the transition of moving our sixth grade to the North Hills Middle School but we are going to have to do without. But I assure you, we will find a way and we will be okay.”

School board president Alison Mathis said the district is aware of the financial difficulties many people are facing because of the outbreak.

"The reality that we are currently faced with is that we have to make financial decisions for the 2020-21 school year while we are in the middle of a global pandemic," she said. "I am hopeful that we might have a clearer picture of the local economic toll by the time the final budget is due on June 30. This is a unique challenge, but I have every confidence that we will rise above this as long as we continue to support each other and our community."