In spring a young man’s fancy turns to baseball, but in January school boards think about budgets.

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board approved a proposed preliminary budget for next school year during its Jan. 13 work session and set up the timetable for adopting the final budget for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Next year’s tentative plan calls for appropriations of more than $76 million and will include a tax increase. The proposed millage rate in Chester County is 26.79 mills —an increase of 4.12 percent. In Chadds Ford Township, the only Delaware County township in the U-CF district, the millage proposed is 22.5 mills, up 3.64 percent.

A mill is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The difference in millage rates between the two counties is based on how the counties assess property value.

The basic progression for the budget process is to go from proposed preliminary budget to preliminary, then proposed final budget to final.

The board will vote to make the proposed preliminary budget the official preliminary budget on Feb. 18. There will then be a proposed budget presentation during the April 7 work session. A budget hearing is scheduled for May 5, with May 6 and 7 set aside if other hearings are needed. On May 12, the board will vote to approve the proposed final budget, with a June 16 date to approve the budget as final.

Other business

Safety and security were also discussed during the work session. School Board President Vic Dupuis briefly discussed the process for implementing updated safety procedures at the schools but details of those plans will not be divulged out of concern that releasing them to the public would undermine security.

Safety was also brought up during a presentation by the Brandywine Conservancy.  The conservancy wants a trail easement through Chadds Ford Elementary School property. Land planner Sheila Fleming and landscape architect Mike Lane updated the board on a proposal first made in March 2013.

The trail — which runs along the eastern edge of the school property adjacent to the Wolf property — has existed for at least 60 years, but there’s no formal easement.

The conservancy and Pennsbury Township are proposing some new fencing to keep hikers away from the playground area and signage to keep trail users on the trail and off private property.

According to Fleming, the trail is part of the Brandywine Trail that starts at the Brandywine State Park in Delaware, then runs up from the southern edge of Pennsbury Township up to Ludwig’s Corner, north of Downingtown, in West Vincent Township.

She added that the trail could become part of a 230-mile network of trails and sidewalks that are planned around both branches of the Brandywine Creek

Lane called the segment at CFES the “missing link” to the entire trail system.

Superintendent John Sanville said his administration would review the concept with student safety in mind and report back to the board with recommendations for a vote, possibly in February.