5-1 Vote Pushes Pottstown School Taxes Up by 3.3%

Photos by John Armato

The Pottstown High School Air Force JROTC Unit was presented with a "distinguished unit" citation for the 18th consecutive year Thursday night. 

Pictured above with unit members are Lt. Col. James Porter, left, and School Board President Amy Francis, center.

At right, Francis adds the distinguished unit ribbon is added to the unit flag.

With three members absent, the Pottstown School Board mustered the bare minimum of votes Thursday to pass a 2019-2020 budget that will raise taxes for the average property owner by $111.

Board member Thomas Hylton cast the only vote against the budget, although board members John Armato, Bonita Barnhill and Board President Amy Francis all indicated their yes vote was cast "reluctantly."

Board member Kurt Heidel said because he only won the Republican ballot line in the May 21 primary, and is thus unlikely to win reelection, he did not want to vote for a budget his replacement would have to live with, but Board Solicitor Stephen Kalis informed him he had to vote and could not "pass."

With Vice President Katina Bearden and board members Susan Lawrence and Kim Stilwell all absent, Heidel's failure to vote would have meant only four affirmative votes and budget passage, by law, requires five.

Business Manager Maureen Jampo said in March, the budget had a $1.2 million deficit and little had changed by June, when the deficit had been whittled down to $1 million. 

That's about how much will be raised by increasing property taxes by 3.3 percent, the maximum allowed by the state this year for Pottstown.

That's the same state that adopted a fair school funding formula in 2016 that it refuses to fully implement. Were it in place, Pottstown would be getting an additional $13 million a year from Harrisburg and the painful decisions being faced now would disappear.

In fact, said Armato, were the fair funding formula fully implemented, the average property tax bill would drop by $370.

In case you missed the rally, Pottstown NAACP 

member Bobby Watson snapped this picture of

1,000 protesters in the Capitol rotunda June 12.

But the formula is not fully implemented, he said, "because the politicians in Harrisburg lack the moral and ethical resolve and will to make it happen. They're more worried about getting reelected."

For years, Pottstown has been advocating, with increasing volume and increasing public support, for the full implementation of the fair funding formula, which makes up for a low tax base, the poverty of the students and other financially limiting factors.

Last week, activists, board members and the public filled three school buses for a rally in Harrisburg, mounting what is in all likelihood the largest number of voices that day to come from a school district of five square miles.

Armato said the striking increase in educator pensions that is hobbling school budgets across the Commonwealth is the result "one one reason and one reason only: poor management by Harrisburg, and now Pottstown taxpayers have to solve Harrisburg's problem."

If the trend continues, he warned, more and more cuts will have to be made to balance a budget made worse by a state known nationwide as the worst for funding gaps between poor and wealthy districts.

"A lot of people are mad and they should be mad. We can't get to success by cutting. I'm going to vote for this budget, but only reluctantly," Armato said.

"It's really important that people are aware of this," said board member Bonita Barnhill, who noted six board members made it to the fair funding rally.

"If we don't speak up, nothing will change. We have to keep shouting from the rooftops or our children will not get what they need," Barnhill said.

Board member Raymond Rose, who brought his two sons to the June 12 rally, urged Pottstown voters to visit the Advocates for Pottstown Schools Facebook page, where "action items" are posted on a regular basis to keep up public pressure on enacting the Fair Funding Formula.

"We are going to have to force the lawmakers to do this," said Rose. "We have power."

And with that, here are the Tweets from Thursday's meeting:

A Reluctant Budget & No Edgewood Decision