NAZARETH, Pa. — The Nazareth Area School District is raising taxes in its approved 2023-2024 budget. The school board is also considering hiring a collection agency to crack down on student debt.
The school district’s 2023-2024 budget totals $106.6 million, an increase of $4 million. Property taxes will rise by 1.25%. That’s an annual boost of $52.46 in taxes. It raised the millage rate from 56.80 to 57.51. The last time the district raised taxes was in 2021- 2022, when it hiked them by 1.9%. Board Director Kathryn Roberts was the only member voted against the plan.
- Nazareth's new 2023-24 fiscal year budget includes a 1.25% tax increase
- The district will participate in the state's universal free breakfast program
- NASD is also seeking to recoup money it says students owe for school lunches
Standing up the state’s free breakfast program is one reason Nazareth’s budget total jumped by $4 million. Former Gov. Tom Wolf initiated a universal free breakfast program in October 2022 for all eligible schools, using a $21 million surplus to reimburse districts for the cost of the meals. Current Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed continuing it. But Nazareth has gone back and forth since last year on whether to implement free morning meals for its approximately 4,800 students.
Overall, food and supplies rose $347,540, District Business Administrator Stuart Whiteleather said. The total food budget, which was also approved by board members, increased by $420,459 to a total of nearly $2.5 million.
“That is reflective of one, the overall inflationary pressures of food costs I know we all experience that every time we go to the food store," Whiteleather said. "But also included is obviously the initial implementation of our breakfast program.”
Data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education shows Nazareth and Northampton are the only school districts not participating in the universal free breakfast program in the Valley. They do participate in the free or reduced lunch federal program.
“I call and these are just people that don’t respond.”Nazareth Area School Disrict Food Services Director Donna Garr
While the district is spending more on its food services budget to give students universal free breakfast, it’s not planning to increase lunch prices next year. But the district is looking to recoup student lunch debt.
Nazareth Schools Superintendent Robert Kaskey said the district’s current school lunch debt is $2,295. Food Services Director Donna Garr said the student with the least amount of debt owes $32 while the student with the highest owes $389.
“We send weekly emails,” Garr said. “We did a blanket shoutout. I call and these are just people that don’t respond.”
Administrators say they met recently with a collection agency that would pursue unpaid school lunch debt. The agency would target families with more than $25 in debt and charge them an 18% commission.
Roberts asked at a board meeting last week if the district could cut off students with overdue lunch bills from getting meals at school. The state legislature outlawed “lunch shaming,” which is the practice of denying lunch or providing a low-cost meal to a student with school lunch debt in 2017. Denying a student lunch is still banned, but lawmakers added back a provision in 2019 that allows schools to give an alternate lunch to students who owe $50 or more.
Kaskey said in an email that in-debt students are still allowed to receive a meal of their choosing. Some activities, such as walking for graduation or graduating from middle school to high school, may be denied to students with lunch debt. The superintendent said it’s decided on a case-by-case basis.
Nazareth Republican school board candidate Elmo Frey Jr. asked the board why the school district couldn’t refer families to district magistrate court. Frey is a retired magisterial district judge.
Garr said the district could expand the collection agency’s focus on school lunch accounts to also go after students who owe textbook or library book fees, or fees related to technology use, such as compensation for a damaged laptop.
The school board will consider engaging the collection agency at its regular board meeting later this month.
