Last week, voters rejected a ballot referendum that would have raised school property taxes to fund new security measures at Chartiers Valley.
The school district responded in a statement posted on its website:
With the rejection of the Act 1 referendum question that appeared on Tuesday’s primary ballot, Chartiers Valley School District would like to ensure the community that the safety and security of our students, teachers, administration, and support personnel was not dependent on the passage of this week’s referendum.
As many recall, this past March, in response to the tragedy at Parkland, Florida, the District held a public safety meeting with the dual objective to both outline the District’s security plan and to gather feedback from the community. Out of this district and community dialog, a list of suggested security enhancements above and beyond what the District already has in place was drafted. Some of these suggestions have already been implemented. However, many of the supplemental items would incur a significant on-going cost, with estimates in the range of $2 million annually. To fund these measures, it was determined that a 1 mill tax increase would be needed to create funds dedicated to providing for these requests. As this tax increase was above the Act 1 index, as well as the result of a request out of the community, the Chartiers Valley School Board created the referendum to allow the community to decide whether these additional security items should be funded.
Providing a safe environment for our students and personnel has been and will remain a primary objective of the Board and Administration. We will continue to strive to provide security above and beyond what is expected by the community and what is provided by our peer districts. This includes but is not limited to working with local law enforcement and listening to the concerns of the community regarding our safety plans. Together we can make Chartiers Valley safe and provide a positive learning environment for the education of our children.