Acting on the recommendation of their superintendent, Octorara Area School Board members April 19 trimmed $1.2 million from their proposed 2010-11 budget, cutting the $105,000 middle school athletic program, $80,000 in technology, two bus runs costing $100,000, and about $700,000 in salaries and benefits through attrition.
School board president Lisa Bowman said she was “in despair” about the cuts, made just one week after board members learned in a work session the district was granted an exception to raise taxes higher than the Act 1 index of 3.17 percent. This means the district may approve a hefty tax increase without going to voter referendum.
According to business manager Dan Carsley, Octorara was granted an exception based on about $1.3 million in higher-than anticipated expenses: $295,000 in retirement benefits, $387,677 in health care expenses, $358,456 in higher special education costs, and $292,742 in construction debt service.
Carsley also suggested the district could use about $1.1 million in its fund balance to offset a tax increase. School board members Monday said they would prefer to make the suggested cuts and dip into reserves rather than to also eliminate the $365,000 high school athletic program, about $50,000 in supplemental contracts for staff leading extracurricular activities, and $607,000 for students to attend the Technical College High School.
Board members said they would likely approve cutting about $1.2 million from the $47,609,008 budget in May, and give the budget final approval by June 30. According to Newcome, Lancaster County homeowners will see a .71 mill increase to 28.39 mills (up 2.57 percent) and there will be a 3.18 mill increase to 35.41 mills (up 9.87 percent) for Chester County residents.
Many property owners in Lancaster County will face tax bills of around $4,313, and most Chester County homeowners will pay around $5,378, according to Carsley. However, these bills will be offset by gambling revenue. Taxpayers last year received $284 gambling checks, according to Carsley.
Newcome explained the school district, which has been working with state Rep. Bryan Cutler and state Rep. Tom Houghton to attract more business revenue to the district, is in a difficult financial situation because of rising costs such as a 72 percent increase in PSERs contributions, and a recession. The budget originally called for a 9.7 percent increase in Lancaster County and a 17.5 percent increase in Chester County.
However, both administrators and school board members said the budget was not realistic, and menus of potential cuts have been proposed by both staff and board members.
“Our funding and our millage rate are way out of line,” said board member Bob Hume.
Carsley said the recession has lowered the school district’s tax base.
“Property values have declined and there have been many, many reassessments throughout the district,” said Carsley.
Newcome also suggested the school board could cut $75,000 by eliminating mid-day transportation for kindergarten students. However, board members expressed concern that families would instead opt into charter schools, many of which offer all-day kindergarten, thus costing the school district more in both tuition payments and transportation.
“It’s almost like we take two steps forward and three steps back,” Bowman said. “We need to broaden our tax base. We don’t have enough ratables in this area. I don’t think state aid is going to be forthcoming. We have to do some things ourselves.”
High school principal Scott Rohrer said staff is looking at the possibility of providing technical college education to high school students right on campus in the future to save money.
The school board also read a letter from a parent asking for increased drug and alcohol education, and heard parent Scott Grimes of Parkesburg ask for statistics on drug and alcohol use in district schools. Newcome said figures will be provided at a future meeting, and that prevention education is ongoing.
In personnel matters the school board accepted with regret Linda Persing’s retirement resignation as human resource coordinator, awarded a $78,400 contract to Altchem Environmental Services for exterior asbestos abatement at the high school, and approved the CCIU core services budget of $17,192,748 and the CCIU occupational education budget of $22,239,178.
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