The past two budgets approved by the Norristown school board have been zero-mill budget increases. This means that taxes have not been raised in the Norristown community since 1999. Each year the board decides how they are going to handle what expenses are due at the end of the current year, and how they are going to handle expenses for the upcoming year. With no millage coming in, funds must be found through attrition, cuts, and grants. Attrition is when staff members retire they are not replaced, therefore there are less salaries to pay.
Cuts directly eliminate educational programs and activities for students.
Finally, grants are written by non-grant writers, often faculty, in a last resort to find money. To make matters more complicated, the districts fund balance is at an all time low. To generate this expense real estate taxes would have to be raised by 1.9157 mills. Some of the deficit could be appeased by capital in the fund balance, however NASD s fund balance is not in a condition to lend money. A fund balance is a savings account and an emergency pool of money.