June 20, 2023

Taxes are going up again in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. School board directors passed the 2023-2024 academic year budget during their June 19 meeting, and for another year, there’s a property tax increase. The district has been raising taxes almost every year since at least 2009.

Directors also voted to approve all-day kindergarten to begin in the 2025-2026 school year. A survey conducted in May indicated that 88 percent of the 554 respondents were in favor of full-day kindergarten classes.

Votes for the all-day K and the budget were unanimous, with seven of nine directors present for the meeting.

The new budget calls for appropriations of $100,902,107 with real estate taxes of 31.95 mils Chester County, an increase of 3.97 percent, and 16.72 mils, an increase of 4.63 percent in Delaware County. Between the two counties, that’s a weighted increase of 4.1 percent over last year’s budget. (A mil is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.)

The different tax rates between the two counties are based on how the counties – Chester and Delaware — assess properties, but that difference in taxation may go away. Directors voted for the district to urge the state legislature to amend School Code Section 672.1. That’s the section that allows for different milage rates and allows school districts covering multiple counties to adjust property tax rates based on county procedures.

The resolution that passed reads: “[T]he board of school directors urges the Pennsylvania General Assembly to repeal or amend Section 672.1, to allow districts to follow the mandates of Act 1 tax increase restrictions (like all single county school districts) without a mandated annual reassessment to ‘balance’ requirement, and to use common sense available data for uniformity in levying cross county tax mils.”

School board Director Jeff Hellrung said the change, should the legislature adopt it, “would reduce variation year-to-year; it would put all of us on the same consistent Act 1 basis, and I think it would be well received by our residents.”

Director Jen Brown added that she’s only heard one comment on the resolution, and it was in favor.

“I agree with Mr. Hellrung that, as a Delaware County resident myself, this is the best interest of all of my constituents.”

Board President Victoria Baratta reminded the board and residents that the resolution “isn’t making a change. This is just saying that as a school board and school district, we just support making such change.”

Hellrung added that “We’ll leave it to heavy-duty lobbyists like [Superintendent of Schools] Dr. Sanville to make sure this passes in the legislature.”

Sanville then said, “I’ll do my best.”

The lone “no” vote came from Director Robert Sage, who made the motion to approve. In response to a question from fellow Director Rashi Akki, he said “My concern is what I don’t know. What I do know is that the current system works. It doesn’t work perfectly. I think it’s hard to explain and I think it has a higher variation that I would like year-to-year for the milage rates for Delaware County. What I’m concerned about is that I don’t understand how things would work.”

Specifically, he isn’t sure how the possible change would affect property owners if the county would re-evaluate property. “I’m just not sure I understand all the potential implications to our taxpayers, especially not knowing what it’s going to be changed to by the legislature,” Sage said.

The directors also voted to increase the prices for school lunches in the elementary and middle schools. Both will be increased by $0.25 per meal. Elementary school lunches will go from $2.75 to $3, and from $3 to $3.25 in the middle school. That change will make meal prices in both groups the sixth highest in Chester County.