NORTHAMPTON, Pa. — With a 4% tax hike likely, the Northampton Area School Board might slash funding for the Northampton Area Public Library to further cut costs in the school district’s 2025-26 budget.
“Last time I checked, we were school directors, not library directors,” school Director Joshua Harris said at a Monday meeting.
“So in our current situation we don’t have much of an option.”
Harris and other school directors support cutting the $270,000 the school district normally would allocate to the library as NASD faces a $3.5 million deficit.
“It’s just invaluable that kids have the ability to access books to read.”
Ross Makary, school Director
Still, some school directors said they think the district’s contribution to the library is a benefit to residents.
“It’s just invaluable that kids have the ability to access books to read,” school Director Ross Makary said.
“And I think it’s our responsibility as a school board to fund it. Now maybe we tell them that this funding is going to decrease, but to just cancel it completely, to me, is irresponsible.”
Library’s budget
The school district’s funding represents 52% of the library’s upcoming $516,396 budget.
And the library has relied on the school district’s annual financial support since shortly after it opened in the mid-1960s.
“If people are interested in saving the library in the long run, they need to contact the school board members directly,” Northampton Area Public Library Director Veronica Laroche told LehighValleyNews.com on Thursday.
Laroche suggested residents email, call or write to the school board about the issue ahead of next month’s meeting — when school directors plan to take a vote on the library funding.
Library representatives plan to attend that meeting, Laroche said.
Last budget season, school directors also discussed cutting the library funding, but ultimately didn’t.
At the time, the school board got an influx of petitions supporting the library’s funding. But board President Kristin Soldridge said many of those people weren’t Northampton Area taxpayers.
“The library’s a public library that is funded and should be funded by the local townships and municipalities of the residents that use it,” she said.
“Our school district has its own libraries within each of the schools. They also have an online library that we pay a fee for.”
In addition to the school district’s funding, the library funds itself through state aid and donations. Local municipalities give what they can, Laroche said.
If the school district cuts its financial support, Laroche said the library will have two years to get a tax referendum voted on in the seven municipalities with access to the library.
That would cost residents $35 per household in taxes to support the library, and municipalities wouldn’t be expected to contribute additional funds toward the library, she said.
‘The least we can do’
In addition to book rentals, the library also has magazines, board games, DVDs, CDs and wireless hotspots available.
Additionally, the library offers free computer use and Wi-Fi availability in the building and parking lot.
Laroche said middle and high school students often hang out at the library when they wait for rides, and the library has plans to collaborate with Northampton Borough Elementary teachers this summer on a reading program for students.
“Nobody wants to hear it, but … either we worry about ourselves or we worry about everybody else.”
Kristin Soldridge, Northampton Area School Board President
School Director John Becker said his grandchildren have participated in the library’s preschool programs, which he said “teaches them [to] enjoy reading.”
Becker said he can’t support cutting the library’s funding and noted that 11,674 residents have library cards.
“I think it’s the least we can do to provide services for our community,” he said.
Still, some school directors said they think the library funding would be better used to address the district’s needs.
That includes upcoming facilities costs, such as an estimated $2.4 million partial roof restoration at the high school and a $1 million replacement of the district stadium’s turf field.
Additionally, the high school auditorium needs to replace its fireproof stage curtain, which would cost about $100,000.
“Nobody wants to hear it, but … either we worry about ourselves or we worry about everybody else,” board President Soldridge said.
Additional cuts ‘challenging’
For the upcoming budget, the school district anticipates $136.9 million in revenue and $140.6 million in expenditures, leaving the initial deficit at $3.5 million.
As of Monday, all but two school directors supported a 4% tax increase, which would raise $3.2 million to help close the deficit.
With that tax hike, the average homeowner would see their property tax bill increase $141.80.
The remaining deficit of $285,867 would be covered by the district’s fund balance.
“At the end of the day, there’s not much more money to cut anymore.”
Northampton Area School Board President Kristin Soldridge
But if school directors decide to continue funding the library, the district likely would use more money from its fund balance.
“Additional budget cuts are going to be challenging to find at this point without drastically impacting our program,” schools Business Administrator Craig Neiman said.
The district already developed a spending savings plan that cuts staff positions through attrition, eliminates substitute custodians and decreases school building budgets.
The plan also delays staff computer replacements, adjusts the temperature set point in district buildings and reduces the district’s library and instructional materials.
Soldridge said NASD is reducing spending on its own district libraries by $50,000 as part of the spending savings plan.
“At the end of the day, there’s not much more money to cut anymore,” she said.
