No+tax+hike+in+likely+final+year+for+Duquesne+schools

=By Patrick Cloonan= =//Published in the McKeesport Daily News//= =//6/29/11//= = = = = =Duquesne City School District`s state-appointed Board of Control passed a balanced $14.78 million budget for 2011-12, a year likely to be the last for the 111-year-old district.= ="We have signals from (Gov. Tom Corbett`s) administration and the Senate and House that you will be able to pass a balanced budget," said Dr. Carolyn Dumaresq, Pennsylvania Department of Education deputy secretary for elementary education, during Tuesday`s BOC meeting.= =Dumaresq and executive deputy secretary Amy C. Morton said budget negotiations raised the money Duquesne could expect from Harrisburg to $10.35 million, up from $7.85 million that had been projected earlier.= ="It is no small matter that we have a $2.5 million gap-closing that has come to Duquesne," BOC chairman Dr. Juan R. Baughn said. "It is going to make a tremendous difference for the folks of Duquesne."= =He said he`s comfortable but not happy.= ="The good news is that we closed the gap," the BOC chairman said. "The bad news is, we still must furlough some folks."= =The staff will be reduced from 94 to 65.4. One position was added, and 20 teaching positions were eliminated — 18 via furloughs, and two by not filling openings that were vacant. The superintendent will become a part-time employee and so will what now is a full-time community liaison.= =The board ratified the termination of an intergovernmental pact with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, but it will retain Dr. Paul J. Rach, the on-site day-to-day superintendent serving in place of AIU executive director Dr. Linda Hippert, Duquesne`s superintendent of record.= =The district also will have four other in-house administrative posts formerly covered by AIU, including business manager Christopher Pusateri, as well as a payroll supervisor, board secretary and another staffer to handle accounts payable.= =Moments after the budget was explained, an exchange between Baughn and teachers union president Stanley Whiteman confirmed the district likely will close down after the coming school year, something many of Duquesne`s 5,565 residents have suspected.= =Baughn said all the administrators included in an Act 93 plan would be needed for "closing the building down" as well as for filling gaps left by the departure of AIU.= ="The district will close down after next year?" Whiteman, the Duquesne Education Association`s president, asked.= ="Yes," Baughn replied.= =The BOC chairman would not speculate on what would happen after 2011-12, saying that hadn`t been discussed amid the budget talks.= ="That conversation will have to be made at the state level," Baughn said.= =That didn`t stop the conversation with the audience.= =DeWayne Tucker, president of Duquesne`s elected school board, said he wanted assurances that "something is in place" for the children of Duquesne. He railed about Duquesne`s 111-year existence, saying that was longer than the lifespan of some colleges in Pennsylvania.= ="The rumors are all going to start," said city Councilman Timothy Petrisko, a former colleague of Tucker on the elected board.= =Dumaresq and Morton left after a brief appearance, before the board began tackling Tuesday`s agenda. Inquiries were referred to a PDE spokesman, who didn`t respond by presstime.= =Homestead-based AIU isn`t abandoning Duquesne.= ="We will be there to assist," Hippert said after the meeting. AIU was paid $300,000 for administrative services but had other ties beyond that four-year-old contract.= =AIU also had provided Duquesne with speech and language services, supervision of special education and a federal liaison, as well as printing and graphics services and media relations.= =What ties will remain?= ="They`ll decide that ... soon," Hippert said.= =In other business, Petrisko and custodian Kevin Price asked the board to add a school bus stop at the Duquesne Place apartments. The nearest bus stop now is nearly half a mile away, along a stretch of Commonwealth Avenue without sidewalks.= =Pusateri said the district`s insurance carrier had found problems to be corrected this summer at the old football field along Commonwealth. Included are rundown bleachers, home-team-side bleacher fencing fallen into disrepair, disconnected backstop pipes and a drainage ditch.= = Read more: [|No tax hike in likely final year for Duquesne schools - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] [] =

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