McKeesport+School+District+Looks+to+Furlough+96+Employees

=By Patrick Cloonan= =//Published in the McKeesport Daily News//= =//4/28/11//= = = = = = = =McKeesport Area School District`s board of directors is looking for a reason to allow the district to furlough 96 employees, including 35 full-time teachers.= =Under state law, that reason cannot be finances, even though McKeesport Area may see a reduction in state subsidy from $26.3 million to $21.9 million under Gov. Tom Corbett`s budget plan.= =So, at Wednesday`s meeting, the board unanimously authorized superintendent Dr. Timothy M. Gabauer "to continue the study of student enrollment trends for the past five years, past and present curriculum and course offerings (and) overall staffing needs."= =Gabauer will make recommendations to the board for the coming fiscal year, to be reflected in a preliminary budget next month.= ="Our student enrollment has declined so significantly over the past five years," Gabauer said.= =There isn`t much room for a tax increase, though director Tom Maglicco as board financial affairs chairman asked the district to have its financial team "let us know the cost of three schools" in terms of millage.= =The district has a 16.71-mill real estate tax, with each mill netting $730,000. The school board has authorized a budget that stays within an index set by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which limits any tax hike to 2.1 percent, or about a third of a mill.= =All that was before Corbett`s March 8 budget address, described by area lawmakers at the March 23 board meeting as devastating to public education. Gabauer summed it up Wednesday as "not fair to students and the community."= =Still, Gabauer said, "there is no need to rush" a decision on furloughs, pledging to act "in the best interest of our students, the best interest of our district and the best interest of our staff." He thinks there could be changes in the budget in the General Assembly.= ="The governor is very steadfast in his message," Gabauer said. "There is a lot of pressure in the House and Senate."= =MASD will seek to maintain a full-day kindergarten, using federal Title 1 funds instead of Accountability Block Grant funding that no longer is available under the proposed state budget. Gabauer said the district may get $2.5 million in Title 1 funds, though recent federal budget cuts could take up to 15 percent of that.= ="We should, within the next week or so, get the figures on the federal funding," the superintendent told the board.= =Centennial Elementary School kindergarten teacher Joan Burns told the board that plans are being made for a rally on May 5 at 6:15 p.m. at the Renziehausen Park bandshell. The rally would precede a town meeting hosted by state Reps. Marc J. Gergely, D-White Oak, Bill Kortz, D-Dravosburg, and Harry Readshaw, D-Carrick, at 7 in the McKeesport Area High School auditorium.= =Burns called on participants to wear red and to bring bells or other noisemakers, and invited the school board to attend.= ="Sto-Rox and Steel Valley are coming to join us as well," Burns said. Both districts also are anticipating sharp cuts in funding under the proposed budget, with Steel Valley`s board voting to furlough 56 teachers, counselors, professional staff and support personnel.= =Also Wednesday, several speakers thanked the board for not hiring W&K Steel as a subcontractor for the Francis McClure expansion project. The speakers alleged recently that the Rankin steel fabricator is a sweatshop that mistreats immigrant workers.= =The board approved a proposal from ATI Development Inc. for abatement of steel beams at McClure for a cost no greater than $25,000. It also approved a $6,000 change order for additional asbestos abatement at the old Cornell site, this time for some of the nearby houses being demolished to allow the district to expand a new Cornell Intermediate-Elementary School.= = = = Read more: [|McKeesport Area School District looks to furlough 96 employees - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] [] = = =

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