North Penn Business Administration Director Bob Schoch says school district revenues continue lagging behind expenses by about $5 million, and the school board will need fresh ideas to meet challenges as it prepares a new budget.

“We’ve pretty much exhausted in the last three years the standard ways of balancing budgets, and those have totaled in excess of $20 million.”

He says residents could face a property tax hike in the new school year, possibly in excess of a 1.7 percent state index.  At its next work session on February 12, the board will need to approve a preliminary budget or adopt a resolution pledging not to raise taxes by more than the index.