Northern Lehigh board adopts roughly $40 million budget, approves 2% tax increase

The Northern Lehigh School District board voted to adopt a general fund budget of roughly $40 million and approved a 2% property tax increase to help cover recurring costs Monday evening.

Chair (speaker 1) opened the discussion and asked for a motion to approve the proposed budget. After a motion and second, the board voted to approve the budget; the board recorded that the motion passed 8–1. "So we now have a $40,000,000 budget," the chair said following the vote.

Administrators had presented the final budget package as the culmination of several months of work, listing recurring costs the board directed to include: an additional full-time ELDP teacher to meet enrollment of multilingual students, a new theater program budget and a new music program budget. The presenter (speaker 4) also outlined recommended one-time purchases to be funded from assigned fund balance, including technology upgrades, debt-service payments, an English language arts curriculum purchase, a feasibility study and auditorium and stage sound upgrades; the presenter said those one-time…