(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Though the final budget won’t be cemented until late June, preparations for it were cemented at the New Brighton’s school board meeting on Monday evening. The board placed a resolution on the agenda for approval to adopt a proposed final budget at the May 22 voting meeting–though what the details of that are remain somewhat ambiguous.

“It’s still a giant question mark,” stated Superintendent Dr. Joseph Guarino. “We don’t really know any more today than we did back at the beginning of March when the Governor released it. There has been absolutely nothing out of Harrisburg, so we don’t know if the numbers released are accurate, if they might go up or they might go down, we really don’t know much of anything at this point. [It’s] not uncommon for this time of year.”

Guarino added that while there are discussions about what the budget could contain–including a potential millage increase for the next year–but reminded the public that the proposed budget is simply that…proposed. “It is just a proposed one,” Guarino stated, “so what we approve at the end of May can be changed as much as we want between the end of May and the end of June.”

Also added to the list of resolutions at Monday night’s meeting were approvals for board member Bernadette Mattica to be appointed as the board’s treasurer, and three submissions of applications for Title I, Title II and Title IV for the 2023-24 school year. Several contract renewals are also set to be voted on at the May 22 meeting, including a $3,500 one-year renewal with Medic Rescue and the “All Sports & Voluntary Student Accident Insurance” for the 2023-24 school year at a total of $7,900.

The May 22 voting meeting is scheduled for 7:30 PM at the “Little Theatre” in the high school.