Ringgold approves budget with real estate tax increase
NEW EAGLE – Property owners in the Ringgold School District will see a slight increase in real estate taxes under the terms of a new budget adopted Wednesday.
The $45.5 million spending plan for next term includes a .2-mill tax increase to set aside money to pay teacher salary increases in the 2019-20 term, said Randy Skrinjorich, acting superintendent.
“It’s reasonable,” Skrinjorich said of the millage increase that will result in a $22 increase in tax bills for the owner of a house assessed at $109,000.
The tax increase will raise $280,000, which will be included as a contingency line item in the 2018-19 budget, he said.
“Now it’s coming time to pay the piper,” Director Maureen Ott said.
She said the contract settlement with the teachers unfortunately led to the tax increase.
The school board in January approved a new five-year contract with the district’s teachers following a 23-day strike.
The new contract will result in the union receiving a 3.9 percent increase in wages per year to cover the entire salary budget. The teachers will earn between $36,750 and $79,508 a year depending on when they were hired. By the end of the contract, the salaries will be set between $40,000 and $81,008 a year.
In other business, the board congratulated the superintendent’s administrative assistant Betty Dornan on her upcoming retirement.
“She will be greatly missed,” Skrinjorich said.
Dornan worked for 53 years under nine different superintendents since Ringgold formed through the merger of districts in Donora and Monongahela.
The board hired Gina Durko to replace Dornan during the Wednesday meeting in the district’s administration building in New Eagle.