Schuylkill Valley schools raise taxes 3% in $50.7M budget

Schuylkill Valley School District property owners will pay more school tax for the first time in seven years. At a June 8 special meeting, the Board of School Directors adopted a $50,735,730 general fund budget for 2026-27 and raised the real estate tax rate to 28.67 mills from 27.82, an increase of 0.85 mills, or 3.06 percent.

The district's own budget document translates the hike: on the district's average assessed home value of $150,000, the increase costs $127.50 a year. The rate had sat at 27.82 mills since 2019-20, when it rose from 27.07, according to the district's audits.

Inside the numbers

• Instruction: $29,038,554
• Support services: $15,924,552
• Debt service: $3,166,324
• Homestead exclusion: $9,851.06 off assessed value for approved properties

The new rate stays just under the district's Act 1 index ceiling of 29.0162 mills. Act 1 is the state law that caps how much a school board can raise taxes without asking voters; by staying beneath the cap, the board needed no referendum.

How school taxes fit your bill

School districts are usually the largest line on a Berks County property tax bill, ahead of the county's 9.013 mills and municipal rates. How the three layers stack, and what a mill costs you, is in our guide to how your Berks County property tax bill is split. If the assessment behind your bill looks wrong, the annual appeal deadline is August 1.

Schuylkill Valley serves Leesport, Bern Township, Centre Township, and Ontelaunee Township, the northern Berks municipalities whose governments we now track weekly.

Update, September 20, 2026: the June 8 vote was 6 to 2, with Joseph M. Brown and David E. Moll opposed and Kelly J. Steinke absent, according to the minutes posted since. Correction: an earlier version of this story said the rate had been unchanged since 2021 and that this was the first increase in five years; the district's audits show the rate rose to 27.82 mills in 2019-20, making this the first increase in seven budget years. The board financed a fieldhouse at the high school in the same months; that story is here.