It's really a strange day when residents of a school district recommend raising school taxes -- especially after the district unveiled a preliminary budget with no proposed tax increase.

But that's what happened last week in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, where the district proposed in its preliminary budget to use $1.9 million from its fund balance to balance the 2005-2006 budget.

That plan was introduced as a way to avoid raising property taxes, but a nine-member group of residents who volunteered to taken an independent look at the budget, had a different idea.

"We ask that you consider raising taxes by 1 mill to meet the 2005-2006 budget instead of using the reserve fund," said resident Thomas Hajduk, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who presented the findings at the school board's May 11 meeting.

If this year's $54 million preliminary budget is approved as proposed, the district's fund balance will be reduced from $3.8 million to $1.8 million, but the millage rate will remain 23.11 mills.

"If the fund balance is too low, it affects our bond rating," Hajduk said after the meeting.

The residents' Budget Review Committee worked for six weeks to try to find ways to cut costs without sacrificing educational standards, generate revenue and enhance the quality of education, Hajduk said.

Their recommendations for cutting costs centered on trying to use more group purchasing of insurance, competitive bidding for rental agreements, offering cafeteria-style benefits to employees and negotiating future contract changes with the teachers that would limit the amounts of extra compensation paid for moderators, coaches and teachers who participate in other extracurricular programs.

To increase revenues, they proposed challenging assessments of commercial and residential properties that are underassessed, looking into ways to rent out school facilities, such as auditoriums and fields, and selling parking permits to students for the limited parking spaces available during the renovation of the high school.

Hajduk said the third part of their report, ways to enhance education, is the most important.

Among these recommendations was the idea of creating a $1,000 Excellence in Teaching Award for each building and to create an Educational Best Practices Fund to study and benchmark the best practices of peer school districts.

School Director Michael Stelmasczyk recommended that the school administration study the residents' report and make a response to each recommendation.

That initiative will be part of the district's preparation for the approval of a final budget next month.

The school board will hold a public hearing on June 1. The budget is expected to be approved on June 8.