Oley Valley Weighs 3.6% Tax Cap, Girls Wrestling Team

The Oley Valley School Board's committees meet Wednesday on a pledge not to raise property taxes for 2027-28 by more than 3.6%, a $76,140 bookkeeping move to keep the district's spare cash under a state cap, and a girls wrestling team for the middle and high schools. All three are on the Nov. 4 committee agenda, along with ten policies up for a second reading, a fix to a therapy contractor's transposed billing rates and a legislative report on five bills that became law in October. The meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. in the high school library, with an executive session on "Negotiations" beforehand.

The committee agenda lists each item as a motion, but committee items have returned for the full board's vote at the next regular meeting this fall: the same ten policy first readings appeared on both the Oct. 7 committee agenda and the Oct. 20 regular agenda, and the tax resolution dates its adoption to the Nov. 17 regular meeting.

The tax pledge

Act 1 is Pennsylvania's 2006 school property-tax law. Each year the state sets an "index" for every district, and a board that wants to raise taxes by more than its index needs either state-approved exceptions or voter approval at a referendum. The Budget & Finance Committee, chaired by Andrew Kline, opens with a motion "To approve the Act 1 Resolution not to raise property taxes above the adjusted index of 3.6% (1.197 mills and approximately $877,261) for the 2027-2028 school year." The posted resolution states that "the Oley Valley School District index for the 2027-2028 fiscal year is 3.6%," has the board certify "that it will not increase any school district tax for the 2027-2028 school year at a rate that exceeds the index as calculated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education," and is dated "this 17th day of November, 2026."

The state's Act 1 index page explains the number: the base index averages growth in state wages and a federal index of school employment costs, and districts whose "market value/personal income aid ratio" is above 0.4000 get a higher adjusted index. The Pennsylvania Bulletin notice of Sept. 5 set the 2027-28 base index at 3.6%, and the state's adjusted-index spreadsheet lists Oley Valley's aid ratio at 0.3730, below the cutoff, so its adjusted index is the plain 3.6%. Brandywine Heights' board took up the same 3.6% pledge Monday; Governor Mifflin, with a higher aid ratio, gets 4.6%.

The pledge is a ceiling, not a tax increase, and the resolution spells out the trade: by passing it the board "is not eligible to seek referendum exceptions" and "is not eligible to request approval from the voters through a referendum" to go above the index, while the district's administration "is not required to comply with the preliminary budget requirements" of Act 1. Referendum exceptions are the state-approved reasons that let a district exceed its index without a vote; the state's exceptions page lists four, covering school construction debt, special-education spending and retirement contributions. The state's guidance says every board chooses each year between an early preliminary budget and such a resolution, and its 2027-28 timeline puts the deadline at Jan. 28, 2027. The board sets the actual rate when it adopts a budget in June.

A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value; our guide explains how the school share of a Berks tax bill works. The county's 2026 tax-rate table lists the Oley Valley school rate at 33.2578 mills in all four of its municipalities, Alsace, Oley, Pike and Ruscombmanor townships. By our arithmetic, 3.6% of 33.2578 is 1.197 mills, matching the agenda, and 1.197 mills divided by 3.6% works back to about 33.25 mills. The agenda's "approximately $877,261" is what a full 1.197-mill increase would raise districtwide. If the board used the whole index next June, the owner of a property assessed at $100,000, who now pays about $3,326 a year in school tax, would pay about $120 more. Nothing on Wednesday's agenda proposes any increase.

Moving $76,140 to stay under the 8% cap

A district's fund balance is its year-end savings, and the unassigned part is the portion not set aside for any purpose. Section 688 of the state Public School Code, 24 P.S. § 6-688, bars a district from raising property taxes unless its budget projects an ending "unreserved, undesignated" fund balance below a set share of spending; the share is 8% for districts with budgets of $19 million or more and rises to 12% for the smallest. The statute defines that balance as the portion "appropriable for expenditure or not legally or otherwise segregated for a specific or tentative future use."

The committee's second motion is "To approve transferring $76,140 from the Unassigned Fund Balance to the Committed Fund Balance for charter school tuition costs to comply with the 8% General Fund limitation on unassigned fund balance as determined by the 2025-2026 audit." Committing the money to charter tuition takes it out of the unassigned count. "Unassigned" and "committed" are two of the five fund-balance categories in current government accounting standards, GASB Statement No. 54, per the Government Finance Officers Association's guidance; the agenda's own wording treats the unassigned balance as the figure the 2005 statute calls "unreserved, undesignated." The agenda gives no total for the fund balance, and the 2025-26 audit is not among the posted board documents.

Girls wrestling

The Student Activities Committee, chaired by Zachary Moore, lists a motion "To approve the addition of a Middle School and High School Girls Wrestling Team as an official PIAA sport, starting with the 2026-2027 school year," which means this winter. PIAA is the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, which governs school sports statewide; it voted unanimously in May 2023 to sanction girls wrestling, with the sport starting that fall, CBS Pittsburgh reported. The agenda gives no cost, coach or roster. The committee's standing goals include "Evaluate space under the weight room for wrestling to utilize."

Fixing a transposed billing rate

The Curriculum Committee, chaired by Mary Harris, lists a motion to approve "the Kelly Pediatric Service (KPTS) contract Amendment for the position of Registered Behavior Technician (RBT); the position should be billed at $58.99/hr. replacing $71.99/hour." The amendment, which Kelly Services signed Oct. 26, says the parties' Aug. 18, 2026 therapy services agreement contained "a clerical error in which the hourly bill rates for certain positions were inadvertently transposed." It swaps two lines: the Registered Behavioral Technician drops from $71.99 an hour to $58.99 for 2025-26, with $1 steps in each of the next two years, and the Licensed Behavioral Specialist Consultant rises from $58.99 to $71.99 on the same schedule. The corrected rates apply "retroactively to July 1, 2026," with any difference settled "through a credit or additional invoice." The board's Aug. 18 minutes record the original approval as "the three-year contract and rider for KTS Therapy Services (i.e., formerly Pediatric Therapy Services (PTS)," with no rates listed. The amendment's table columns are labeled "School Year 2025-2026" through "2027-2028," even though the agreement it corrects is dated Aug. 18, 2026 and the fix runs from July 1, 2026; under those labels the 2026-27 technician rate is $59.99, not the $58.99 the agenda cites. The district's signature line on the amendment is blank, and neither document says how many hours the district buys.

Flags and nine other policies

The district reads a policy at two meetings before adopting it. The Policy & Legislative Committee, chaired by Jeff Boyd, lists ten policies whose first readings were on the Oct. 7 and Oct. 20 agendas: 102, 105, 204.1, 209, 249 Bullying/Cyberbullying, 704, 803 School Calendar, 805.2 Security Personnel, 807 Opening Exercise/Flag Displays and 822 AED/CPR. Only 249 and 807 are labeled "for second reading"; the other eight motions say "First reading has concluded." Nine of the ten numbers match the list Brandywine Heights' board took up Monday. The drafts sit in the district's November documents folder.

The Policy 807 draft is a marked-up copy: it strikes the existing sentence "A United States flag shall be displayed in classrooms and on or near each school building during school hours, inclement weather and at other times determined by the Board" and highlights a new "Flag Displays" section as added text. That section would limit the flags the district itself displays to six kinds: the U.S. and Pennsylvania flags, the POW/MIA flag, district flags, U.S. military branch flags and "other country and state flags as needed for educational purposes." It says "no other flag, banner, pennant, or similar symbolic display intended to represent a political, ideological, religious, social, advocacy, or other cause or viewpoint shall be displayed by the district or by district employees as part of the district's official displays unless specifically authorized by the Board," lets the superintendent "authorize the temporary display of an additional flag for a specific ceremonial, governmental, educational, or commemorative purpose," and says it does not regulate "constitutionally protected student expression." Page 2 highlights one more addition: "If a student elects not to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, staff must respect the student's decision and follow the expectations and procedures established in applicable administrative regulations and Handbooks."

Five new laws in the legislative report

Kline's November legislative report, written as the board's legislative liaison, tracks five bills signed in October: a prevailing-wage expansion, stiffer penalties for "swatting" threats against schools, a rule that drivers stop 15 feet from a school bus with its red lights flashing, and two aimed at how boards and students operate. The report says the Pennsylvania School Boards Association opposed three of the five, including both of those.

Senate Bill 1150, which the report says "would legislatively overturn" the state Supreme Court's Coleman v. Parkland School District decision affirming that boards "may amend meeting agendas during a meeting with a majority vote," was signed Oct. 22 and is now Act 103 of 2026. The enacted text lets an agency add an item mid-meeting only if it is "a matter of agency business arising under subsection (b), (c) or (d)" of the Sunshine Act's agenda rule, 65 Pa.C.S. § 712.1: an emergency, a minor matter that arose within 24 hours, or a minor matter a resident raises at the meeting, the latter two not involving spending or a contract. It takes effect in 60 days.

Senate Bill 1014, which "would prohibit students from using mobile devices during the school day, including during homeroom, lunch, recess and class transitions," with exceptions the report describes as covering "medical needs, disabilities, translation-related purposes and situations approved by a teacher or principal," was signed Oct. 26 and is Act 117. Its text adds a "Bell-to-bell" section to the School Code under which, "No later than the start of the 2027-2028 school year, the governing body of each school entity shall adopt a policy" on student possession and use of devices.

Also on the agenda

• Budget & Finance lists a motion to hire the Berks County Intermediate Unit to "process, print, and mail the 2026 Act 1 Application for Homestead and Farmstead Exclusions" at "an estimated total cost" of "$1,156.05 for 1097 mailers (2025-2026 $1,075.08)." The state's timeline has districts mail those notices by Dec. 31 to residential owners not already approved; homeowners have until March 1, 2027 to file, and our guide explains who qualifies.
• A $500 donation "from Mr. & Mrs. Stokes to the Dott Hamm Legacy Fund to pay the negative balance in students' lunch accounts." The agenda does not describe the fund.
• Personnel, chaired by Darrell Markley: 13 volunteers, an unpaid medical leave Nov. 17 through Nov. 30, three day-to-day substitute teachers at $155 a day, and the resignation of Stormy Russell as high school indoor track and field assistant coach.
• Whether the board approved the three Solar for Schools grant resolutions on Oct. 20 is still unrecorded: the district's 2026-27 minutes folder holds only the July 21 and Aug. 18 minutes. A Google Doc of the Sept. 22 minutes is readable at its address but, as of Wednesday morning, is linked from neither the board page nor the folder.

How to attend

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 6 p.m., Oley Valley High School Library, 17 Jefferson St., Oley. The district's 2026 meeting dates say all meetings begin at 6 p.m. in the library "unless otherwise indicated"; the school board page gives the address and office number, 610-987-4100, and links a YouTube livestream playlist. The committee agenda has no public comment slot; the board's regular meetings put "Introduction of Guests (Public Comment)" at item 5, before the minutes, per the Sept. 22 minutes. The agenda lists the next meetings as a second committee meeting Nov. 10, the regular meeting Nov. 17 and the Dec. 2 reorganization meeting.