DV faces tax hike, program cuts

Cuts in staff hours, services, activities being considered- and then it gets worse, by David Hulse WESTFALL — School officials were to meet Tuesday morning to organize the pieces of a draft 2010-11 budget they’ve been working on for the past three months. As it stood after last Thursday’s Delaware Valley Board of Education meeting, despite a planned 4% tax increase and deep program cuts, the budget was still about $900,000 short of being balanced. Salaries are the district’s biggest expense, and earlier this month Fisher suggested that $1.5 million could be recovered if principal union contracts with the teachers and the administrators could be reopened and scheduled salary increases were deferred or eliminated. Last Thursday he said the board had met with the unions and the request to reopen the contracts “was politely rejected.” Teachers’ Union President Amy Letwinsky confirmed Fisher’s comment. She said teachers at the seven buildings had met and rejected the request. Joe Casmus, 11-12 high school principal, confirmed that the principals and supervisors bargaining unit also rejected reopening their contract. Fisher said he hoped to find the remaining needed budget balancing money by liquidating some district investments and a portion of a $4.2 million reserve fund created for construction of a new DV Elementary School. None of the nine board members were happy about the likely budget outcome. Board President Sue Casey said she had no hope of finding five votes on the board to approve the budget as it stands. Discontent was apparent as members John Kupillas, Bob Goldsack and Diane French complained of Fisher’s 8 a.m. scheduling of the Tuesday, March 30 budget meeting. “Three members can’t come. It doesn’t fly,” said Kupillas. French said the budget was at “a critical state. This can’t be (the work of) a one or two-man band.” Goldsack said he could not attend the 8 a.m. meeting. He also said he had called the state school boards association and got an opinion that unusual hour scheduling “borders on a Sunshine Law violation... The public has a right to hear this.” Fisher said had compromised on earlier budget meeting times to meet objections, making them later in the day, and now his own private business obligations needed to be considered. While it depends on the timely completion of the state budget, the district budget is usually finalized in May. The board met in a 90-minute budget work session before their regular meeting and Finance Committee chair Jack Fisher reported that this year’s budget problems were only the beginning. He predicted a “financial tsunami” over the next 24 months. The district pays into the state Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) and the state fund investments suffered substantial losses in recent year stock market declines. Districts across the state are being called upon to replenish the fund. Fisher said DV’s allocation is rising 72 percent in the new budget, to more than $600,000. The employer contribution, now over 8 percent of payroll, is expected to rise to close to 34 percent by the 2014-15 school year, which would translate to a new $13.3 million cost over those five years. Employer share rates are projected to remain between 20 and 30 percent for the next two decades. Member John Wroblewski said no school district in the state could absorb these kind of costs and presented a resolution for the state legislature to find ways to reduce these local costs. His resolution was approved 8-1, with Fisher voting no after objecting to language about “deferring system liabilities.” “Handing it off to another generation isn’t meaningful,” he said.

A contract is a contract,” Teachers’ Union President Amy Letwinsky

Possible budget changes
Work year cut to 200 days for administrators, department supervisors and police: saving $400,154
Elimination of intramural and tutoring programs and summer salaries for all seven schools and special education: saving $199,421
Cut $125,000 from district budget reserve
Cut $35,000 Pike County Public Library support
Athletic and co-curricular program: 11 percent cut
District technology services: $80,000 cut
DV Elementary School repair/replacement: tabled