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The Home News Your Local News
JUNE 18-24, 2015
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Northampton Area School Board approves tax hike by BILL HALBFOERSTER The Home News
The Northampton Area School Board at their meeting this past Monday, June 8, approved a 2.27% tax increase, or a rate of 1.11 mills higher than the past fiscal year – going up from 48.89 mills to 50 mills starting on July 1. For the average property owner in the Northampton Area School
District, the increase will amount to about $64, figuring that the average property is assessed at $57,761, according to Finance Director Terry Leh. All except board president David Gogel, vice president Jean Rundle, and Roy Maranki approved the new budget, in a 6-3 vote. The general fund budget is $96.1 million, or 4.93% higher
than the present $91.5 million. Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik said 66% of the operating budget is funded by local taxpayers, while 29.71% comes from the state’s Dept. of Education, and 1.3% from the federal government. Kovalchik said the district is not counting on $917,000 promised to the district under a plan
by Gov. Tom Wolf and the education secretary. However, three options were submitted to the state: remedial education for students who fail the Keystone Exams, paying 18 full-day kindergarten teachers, and a student technology pilot program. Beside the general fund budget, there’s an athletic fund budget of $179,120 and a food service budget of $2.3 million. Real estate transfers will be taxed at 0.5% and earned income at 0.7%. Bond refinancing realized $115,000 for the district and the school board voted to put that into a contingency fund.
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97th Birthday celebrated in Bath
Mrs. Gehring and her former fifth grade music class at the old Bath Elementary School –Home News photo by BILL HALBFOERSTER The Home News
Though they are grandparents and possibly even great-grandparents now, a class of former fifth graders at Bath Elementary School had a reunion on Thursday afternoon. It was also a tribute to Mrs. Elisabeth Gehring, their music teacher from many years ago, who is celebrating her 97th birthday. The reunion was a luncheon at
the Town & Country Restaurant in Bath attended by 12 classmates. “It is truly an honor to have Mrs. Elisabeth Gehring, our elementary school music teacher, with us. Mrs. Gehring is a member of the Greatest Generation. Her generation was of hardship and triumphs. It started before and during the Great Depression and World War II, rebuilding not only a nation, but a new world.
These events not only challenged their generation, but also changed future generations, such as ours, to move forward in many positive way,” Allen Haidle said in honor of Mrs. Gehring. He continued: “Our parents taught us to walk, talk, to play and interact with others. We advanced to the elementary school. We had a teacher, a person who was strange to us. A person who was well trained to put up
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with us. The teachers helped us to learn and influenced our future. They were our mentors. We thank them all, our parents, grandparents, teachers and all others of the Greatest Generation who made a positive influence. Thank you, Mrs. Gehring, and all those who filled our lives with positive thoughts and deeds. I believe we turned out pretty well. Happy birthday to you, and we hope you spend many more with us,” he continued. The former fifth graders present at the party/reunion on Thursday included Gloria Fox Chabak, Marilyn Diehl Thomas, Catherine Zakos, Jim Glancy, Marjorie Rice Sloyer, Rebecca Rabenold Wieder, Allen Haidle, Howard and Shelba Fogel, Elsie Dettmer Carraghan, Lester A. Thomas and Dallett “Skip” Carraghan. Mrs. Gehring and her late husband, Charles, formerly resided in Bath. Later they moved to Bethlehem, then to Schnecksville for 40 years when her husband was superintendent in the Northwestern Lehigh school district. In recent years they moved to Emmaus. Since her husband has passed away she now resides at Fellowship Manor in Whitehall.
619 Moorestown Dr., Bath, PA 18014 (Rt. 512)
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