Duquesne+Deficit+Could+Cause+Deep+Staff,+Program+Cuts

=By Patrick Cloonan= =// Published in the McKeesport Daily News //= =// 5/27/11 //= = = = = = With a new chairman at the helm and rows of teachers and parents clad in red T-shirts watching, Duquesne City School District`s state-appointed Board of Control approved a preliminary budget that needs $2.5 million in revenue to be balanced. = = The $14.27 million budget approved Thursday night holds the line on real estate taxes at 21.1 mills, with each mill netting $93,000, but anticipates only $11.75 million in revenue, based on Gov. Tom Corbett`s state budget proposal. = = "What we looked at is what`s required," state executive deputy secretary of education Amy C. Morton said. "What are the programs that are mandated?" = = Even if additional money is found, the budget cuts the teaching staff by 44 percent; eliminates all after-school programs, including turoring; reduces the number of administrators at Duquesne Education Center to two; and means an undisclosed reduction of support staff. = = "Basically, (Pennsylvania Department of Education) is reneging on the commitment they made to us," Duquesne Education Association president Stanley Whiteman said, referring to such aid as an enhanced subsidy of $1.9 million given each year to Duquesne but cut from the Corbett budget. = = More money for schools is expected in the budget that was passed earlier this week by the state House, but Morton and Dr. Carolyn Dumaresq, the deputy secretary responsible for elementary education, said it would not fill the gap. = = Morton and Dumaresq said the district`s budget, as passed Thursday, would force a reduction in the number of teachers from 51 to 29. The number of kindergarten teachers would drop from four to two, but a full-day kindergarten would continue, while teaching staff would be reduced by one for each grade from first through eighth. = = Class sizes would rise from around 15-20 to 30. Whiteman said seven paraprofessionals also would be cut. = = "We`re not going to make AYP," or Adequate Yearly Progress, on the annual Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, Whiteman said. = = "You need more teachers in the classroom with these students," insisted Marlene Roland, who has had five children in city schools. = = Administrators would be reduced to a principal and assistant principal, and other undisclosed staff reductions also would occur. = = "There is still time for those here in Duquesne to speak to your elected state representatives and your elected state senators," BOC member Dr. Stanley E. Denton said. = = "Details may change significantly over the next 30 days," Morton said. = = The preliminary budget was approved unanimously by BOC members Denton, Marlene Gary Hogan and new chairman Dr. Juan R. Baughn, a special assistant to the state secretary of education. = = "The board will not accept that (unbalanced budget) as reality," Baughn insisted. "We will be reviewing this budget in excruciating detail." = = Baughn replaced Dr. Audrey Utley, a former special assistant to the secretary who remained BOC chairman a full year after being hired as superintendent of Steelton-Highspire School District in Dauphin County. = = State officials said they would seek "various federal grants that Duquesne is eligible for," though the district and others across Pennsylvania are losing federal funds no longer available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. = = "We know we are a poor district," Hogan said. "We do not want to suffer." = = Whiteman said his union has joined forces with Steel Valley`s Tell Everyone All Cuts Hurt organization. = = "We are going to unite the Mon Valley and we are going to fight this (state) budget," the DEA president said. = = A final vote is scheduled June 28. = = Read more: [|Duquesne deficit could cause deep staff, program cuts - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] [] =

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