By Chris Barber
Contributing Writer

Mike Finnegan, the Kennett Consolidated School District (KCSD) school board member and board treasurer, announced at the March 10 meeting that the anticipated tax increase for the 2025-26 school year has increased since his report in February.

“Buckle your seatbelts. It’s going to be a tough year,” Finnegan said at the meeting.

The preliminary budget figures presented last month called for a real estate tax increase of 2.81 percent, which amounts to a $172 hike for the average property owner who last year paid $6,168.

In the intervening month, Finnegan said, the incoming information has changed the school district’s projections. The tax increase is now expected to be 3.52 percent or 3.95 percent, depending on the hiring of two more special education teachers.

Based on calculations, a 3.52 percent tax hike would amount to a $217 increase and a 3.9 percent tax increase would mean a $244 increase for the owner of the average assessed property in the district. Tax bills would increase, on average, to $6,385 or $6,412, depending on the exact amount of the tax increase that is approved in the final budget for the next fiscal year.

Finnegan, a longtime school board member, has a lot of experience working with district officials to revise the budget. During most years, district officials are able to identify cost savings or revenue increases that will reduce the anticipated tax increase. This year, however, is different.

“In all my tenure [on the board], I don’t see how we can reduce it,” he said.

He explained that there are two major factors raising the budget costs that the district must accommodate. The first is Genesis Healthcare, which has buildings in Kennett Square Borough, and is appealing its property appraisal downward. Finnegan believes the appeal will be approved, and that will reduce the taxes paid to the school district on the properties. Second, East Marlborough Township, which is divided geographically between the Unionville and Kennett Consolidated school districts, is about to impose a one-percent earned-income tax which will reduce Kennett’s share to be received from its current 50 percent of that to about .5 percent.

According to figures unveiled at the February meeting, the proposed 2025-26 budget for KCSD totals $107.2 million, compared to $104.2 million for the current year.

In other business, Kennett High School has added the Octorara Homeland Security and Protective Services Program to its curriculum starting next year.

This is a three-year program that prepares cadets for careers in law enforcement, corrections, pre-hospital emergency medical care, emergency management, military service and firefighting, according to its publicly distributed description.

Octorara already has the program, and the Kennett School District officials signed on to an agreement to join at the March board meeting.

The program is held at the Chester County Public Training Campus in Modena and offers two half-day-a-week classes per school year for students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades. Students may arrive there in school-provided transportation or their own cars. The students wear uniforms. They may choose to attend from morning sessions from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. or afternoon sessions from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45p.m.

Kennett pays the students’ tuition of $10,758 per school year.

The courses of study are divided roughly into three years of individual subjects. They are: Year one - Law; Year two – EMS; Year three – Firefighting.

Kennett will provide the students’ English, social studies and math courses.

“The intent is to train qualified, competent and professional emergency first responders,” the curriculum summary states. Graduates of the program will receive their high school diploma from their home school district.