Clairton+school+officials+support+state+budget+lawsuit

= = = **By MICHAEL DIVITTORIO ** = = **Published by the McKeesport Daily News ** = = **9/29/11 ** = =   = =Clairton City School District officials are lending their support to a proposed class action lawsuit against Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget. = =State Reps. Bill Kortz, D-Dravosburg, and Marc Gergely, D-White Oak, encour­aged school directors at Wednesday night’s meeting to support the yet-to-be-filed suit regarding Corbett’s cuts to education funding. = =The board responding by unanimously voting to support the effort, without com­mitting district funds, and to draft a formal resolution to that effect. The resolution is to be adopted at next month’s meeting. = =“We want to point out how bad this budget is, how discriminatory we believe it is, and how it’s going to hurt our children this year and going forward,” Kortz said. = =Corbett’s original proposed budget cuts involved a reduction of roughly $1.325 million in state subsidies to Clairton. A modified state budget showed approxi­mately $525,000 in subsidies were replen­ished, and the district based its 2011-12 budget on those figures. = =The Clairton spending plan retained all­day kindergarten and called for furlough­ing 16 positions. Those positions include a music and an English teacher, seven para­professionals, four 180-day substitutes and three reading tutors. = =Kortz noted those statistics as well as some actions from West Mifflin Area School District as a result of the budget cuts. = =“Tutoring cut out, Freshman Academy gone, French language cut,” Kortz said of West Mifflin Area. “Teaming at the middle school cut, two high school business cours­es cut, two kindergarten classes cut...” He also highlighted other programs that were eliminated. = =“This is what is true class warfare in school districts,” said Gergely, a former McKeesport Area school director. Gergely said $873 per student was cut in Clairton and only $79 per student was cut in Upper St. Clair. = =“We could talk about Congress and not taxing millionaires,” he said. “We have it right here in the state of Pennsylvania. We’ve had three consecutive months of high unemployment in this state. We’ve had 14,000 teachers laid off. Our unem­ployment’s gone up because of that. Our children have suffered and so has educa­tion.” Board president Rich Livingston said the governor is targeting financially strapped school districts. = =“The governor, I feel, has made it a pointed effort to focus on low-income, high-minority school districts, and for whatever reason I don’t know,” he said. “That seems to be the low-hanging fruit that he can pick off fast enough because the political clout just isn’t there.” Livingston also highlighted some of the obstacles the district had to overcome as a result of reduced revenue. = = “We have approximately 790 students, and we strive very hard to offer every pro­gram that our neighboring school districts offer,” Livingston said. “This year was a real challenge for us to do that. You saw that we cut 16 positions, but we would have had to cut another 10 if we didn’t have the teachers retire that we had retire and could not replace. = =<span class="ecxabody2" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 110%;">“We didn’t have to give up programs this year, but in a previous year we had Spanish in the elementary we had to give up. We also had to give up our gym program in the elementary the year before. So we have suffered along with the rest of the school districts on this.” School director Sue Wessel noted the district had achieved every benchmark set by the state, and when the district showed positive results the state standard changed. “You can see that the writing is on the wall, what they’re trying to do to small districts,” Wessel said. = =<span class="ecxabody2" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 110%;">“Benchmarks have to be predictable,” Gergely replied. = =<span class="ecxabody2" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 110%;">Gergely noted he and Kortz plan to visit Belle Vernon Area School District to have their officials sign on to the resolution. = =<span class="ecxabody2" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 110%;">“I believe we’re just at the tip of the iceberg,” Gergely said. “This is going to happen, folks.” Kortz said the governor also plans to implement more education cuts. = =<span class="ecxabody2" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 110%;">“He’s a man of his word and he’s going to do that,” Kortz said. “That is going to take more money out of public education. Come next March he is going to chop another branch of the educational money tree. Let there be no doubt. They are going to do the same thing again.” Both representatives also highlighted other lawsuits similar to the one being pro­posed, including one that resulted in the return of hundreds of millions of dollars in education funding in New Jersey. = =<span class="ecxabody2" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 110%;">In April, Clairton submitted letters ask­ing for preliminary merger talks with West Mifflin Area, West Jefferson Hills, South Allegheny and Elizabeth Forward school districts, all of which declined to take the city school district up on its offer. = =<span class="ecxabody2" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 110%;">“Thank you for proving our case,” Gergely said, referencing Clairton’s action. “There’s not a single piece of legislation that addresses that in our state capital. If we don’t fund your school it’s going to be a struggle and a burden for your companies and your taxpayers to keep this school dis­trict up. We need to address that now. We need to fight the good fight, and you’ve done the positive steps to do that, and we certainly appreciate that.” Steel Valley School District officials took action in support of the potential litigation Tuesday night. South Allegheny’s board of directors unanimously voted to endorse the effort last month. West Mifflin Area directors also have discussed supporting the effort. = = = = = = = =News= =home=