The Northern Cambria School District is in the planning phase of consolidating its high school with the elementary/middle school. Throughout its past meetings they presented several options to the public, but many residents take issue with the idea itself as it will raise taxes in the area.
The district has since drawn up plans with an architect and posted a real estate tax calculator on their website so that residents can find out their tax increase as a result of the project. We spoke with some concerned residents who are also running for the school board.
“Our biggest concern with that is that taxes will go up and the number of kids that are not going into the school anymore," said Kevin Krug, a Northern Cambria School Board candidate.
The school’s enrollment has been dwindling over the past years and is not projected to increase.
“When I was on the school board eight years ago, we had around 12 hundred kids in the school district," said Krug. "We’re down below eight hundred nine years later We have a school building at the elementary/middle school that’s built for 15 hundred kids. They’re saying that they can’t accommodate 8 hundred kids into a 15 hundred student building. The existing high school was built in the 1960’s and it’s getting old and it does need some renovations if it’s going to stay open and some security measures that need to be taken care of The declining enrollment is the reason they’re stating to bring everything down into one location They want to build a new addition onto the existing elementary/middle school that’s only 2 thousand square feet less than the building they’re going to leave.”
The tax increase and its effects on the residents is a point of contention for the district.
“How many people around here are already suffering from inflation, from Covid," said Mara Krumenacker, also a Northern Cambria School Board candidate. "Every time you go to the grocery store food has increased, gas has increased and now you expect us to pay more. Especially people who are on fixed incomes, how are they going to be financially able to support themselves? There is no government funding for this project so it will all strictly be on the taxpayers.”
The school board will have a meeting Tuesday at 6pm for further discussion.
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