No+School+district+Escapes+Corbett's+Budget+Cuts

= School districts are scrambling to pare budgets in response to the proposed billion-dollar cut in state funding =

=By Mary Niederberger= =//Published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette//= =//6/16/11//= = = = = = = = There will be larger class sizes and fewer middle and elementary school foreign language classes, high school business and consumer science courses and elementary music programs throughout the region if the preliminary budgets approved by school boards in the wake of proposed state budget cuts become final. = = In addition, more students will pay fees to participate in sports and extracurricular activities, fewer teachers aides and guidance counselors will be available, after-school tutoring programs will be discontinued and some middle school and ninth-grade sports programs will be eliminated or reduced. In at least one district, Sto-Rox, high school track is slated for elimination. = = Among the districts that have proposed pay-to-play fees are Bethel Park, Pine-Richland, West Mifflin Area, Seneca Valley and Upper St. Clair. = = Kindergarten programs have been cut from full- to half-day in districts such as Highlands and East Allegheny because of the loss of state accountability block grant funding. Other districts are making cuts elsewhere to keep their full-day programs. = =  And, unless the state Legislature restores significant amounts of the $1 billion in state funding that Gov. Tom Corbett proposed cutting from the state education budget, scores of teachers face layoffs. As had been anticipated, poorer districts, which depend more on state aid, are expected to see the biggest cuts. = = = = The Duquesne City School District could see its teaching staff reduced from 51 to 29, much of its administrative staff cut and all of its extracurricular activities eliminated if a significant amount of the $4 million cut from its budget is not restored. = = "It's like they put a blockade around us until we surrender and send our kids to other districts," said James Manley, acting superintendent of the Sto-Rox School District. Sto-Rox expects the loss of a behavior specialist, psychologist, elementary librarian, high school English teacher, middle school teacher and a part-time nurse at the middle school, along with the elimination of an elementary "time out" center for disruptive students. = = A state House version of the preliminary budget, approved in late May, restored several hundred million dollars. But local school officials said at this point, it's impossible to know exactly how much state funding they can expect. Many are girding for the worst, basing their preliminary budgets on the governor's proposal, while some are more hopeful and are using the House version. = = "We can't afford to count on something that we don't know for sure will be coming," said McKeesport Area superintendent Timothy Gabauer, whose board has based its budget on the more austere governor's proposal. = = Budgets due by month's end = = Districts must adopt final budgets by June 30, and some are voting as early as this week. Others are waiting until late in the month in hopes there will be more precise information on the amount of state aid they will receive. The Legislature also is supposed to have a budget approved by June 30 but frequently fails to meet that deadline. = = A few districts have approved preliminary budgets that don't include tax hikes, furloughs or program cuts. They include Baldwin-Whitehall, Mt. Lebanon and West Jefferson Hills. = =  For the first time in recent history, the majority of school district budgets for 2011-2012 are smaller than those of the current year because of cuts to programs and staff. Traditionally, district budgets grew somewhat each year as salaries, utilities and other costs rose annually. = = Even so, taxes are rising in a number of districts, though some boards vow to reduce or eliminate the tax hikes by the time they adopt final budgets. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Perhaps even more historic, some teachers unions have agreed to wage freezes and concessions, as have administrative staffs. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> In McKeesport Area, both groups agreed to a one-year freeze. In North Allegheny, the teachers union approved a four-year memorandum of understanding that includes a wage freeze the first year, smaller raises the other three years and increased contributions to health care costs. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> McKeesport is among the luckier districts. Facing a $4.3 million cut in state funding, it started the budget process with warnings that more than 90 jobs were being considered for elimination. While the board cut 46 positions in May, by last week it was able to reduce the number of furloughs to one - an art teacher. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The happy ending came after the wage freeze was agreed upon and 35 teachers accepted an early retirement incentive. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Still, Mr. Gabauer is worried about the financial future of the district because the preliminary budget would use $4.2 million of the district's $6.5 million reserve fund. The board is expected to reduce that amount in the final budget. = = <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Among the less fortunate districts are Steel Valley, Woodland Hills and West Mifflin Area, where significant teacher furloughs are slated and some program cuts are set. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The law on furloughs = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Under state law, districts can furlough teachers only if entire programs are eliminated, buildings are closed or there is a significant decline in enrollment. Furloughs cannot be made for economic reasons. As a result, districts are citing one of those reasons for the furloughs they have targeted. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Some district officials are vowing to restore programs and staff if the state comes through with additional funding, while others say they will use the money to shore up shaky or nonexistent reserve funds. = = <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The Steel Valley board voted to eliminate 40 teachers, counselors and other professional staff and 15 support personnel, though superintendent William Kinavey said no program cuts will be made. But, he said, most classrooms will increase by three to six students. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> In the Seneca Valley district in Butler County, 31.5 positions are set to be eliminated. Seven of those are teachers from the high school business department, which has been discontinued, and two are teachers from the family and consumer science department. In addition, seventh-grade football will be dropped. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The West Mifflin Area school board voted to eliminate 47 jobs, including 22 teachers, two roving elementary principals, a dean of students, 10 teachers aides, two custodians and four secretaries. In addition, 16 special education classroom aide positions were cut from full- to part-time, which revoked health and other benefits for those employees. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The cuts eliminated the team-teaching concept at the middle school, freshman academy at the high school, elementary strings program and high school French. Also dropped are some high school business courses, music technology, one pre-K class and one first-grade class at New England Elementary. Ninth-grade sports were also eliminated. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> In Elizabeth Forward, 22 full-time and two part-time teaching positions will be eliminated, but because of retirements, the district is expected to lose only 12.5 teachers, superintendent Bart Rocco said. Among the positions cut are a social studies teacher, guidance counselor, half-time business education teacher at the high school and guidance counselor, librarian at the middle school, along with French and Spanish courses at the middle school. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> In the Woodland Hills School District, superintendent William Calinger predicted a "substantial number" of personnel cuts when the proposed $72 million budget was introduced in May. The cuts will include teachers, administrators, janitors and support staff, but exact details and numbers have not yet been released. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The Woodland Hills budget also eliminates the district's participation in the Boyce Campus Middle College, an alternative program for at-risk high school students. It also calls for the closing of Woodland Hills Junior High School, though the superintendent said he expects funding for the junior high to be restored to the budget. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The Wilkinsburg school board approved a $26.2 million preliminary budget that eliminates 42 positions, which will require 23 furloughs. The rest will be cut through attrition. The district has not released details on what teachers or programs will be affected, said business manager Bruce Dakan. The budget is $3.6 million less than last year. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Other districts that included furloughs in their preliminary budgets are South Allegheny, with 11 teachers and seven support staff members eliminated, and South Park, 11 teachers and two administrators. Foreign languages were also hit at South Park, where one teacher was cut at the elementary and middle school levels. = = <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> "The reason you are seeing some of the cuts in elementary music and foreign language at the elementary and middle-school levels is these are not state-mandated programs," said Dave Davare, director of research for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Likewise, high school business courses and family and consumer science courses also are not mandates, Mr. Davare said, adding that the local cuts mirror statewide trends. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> South Park also cut the full-day kindergarten program it operated for 12 students who were identified as in need of it. But it will contract with a private firm to provide an extended kindergarten day for those students if their parents either pay tuition or qualify for grant money. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The Bethel Park board recently eliminated its third-grade strings program and fifth-grade exploratory foreign language program and a number of positions. But because of retirements and the creation of other positions, furloughs are not expected to be significant or may not be needed at all, district spokeswoman Vicki Flotta said. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> And in Moon Area, the board was able to hold the line on taxes, but the preliminary budget includes five furloughs, cutbacks to special education classes and the end of a program that aided first-grade students who need transition assistance to second grade. Moon officials said more staffing cuts could come in the final budget. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Teachers or bus drivers? = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> In the Penn Hills School District, 56 teachers received furlough notices in April, but the district's final budget adopted Monday calls for 45 of those teachers to be rehired in the fall, while 11 will remain on furlough. The district also eliminated three clerical positions and nine teachers aides. There will be no tax increase. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> The rehiring of the teachers was made possible because the district outsourced its busing services to First Student Inc. for the next five years, a move that will save the district $3.3 million for the first year and between $1.4 million and $1.7 million in each of the following years. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> At the time the board voted on the bus contract, board President Carl Barbarino said the issue was a choice between keeping teachers or keeping drivers. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Mr. Davare, of the school boards association, said budget decisions for school boards this year have been particularly difficult. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> "Everybody is looking at everything," he said. "When it comes time to make the tough choices, the things that are nice have to go by the wayside for the things we need to have." = =Read more: [] = = = =News= =home=