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Schools take chance, keep taxes low
Districts hope state delivers
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Jul 03, 2009 10:05 EST
By BRIAN WALLACE, Staff Writer

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Lancaster County's 17 public school districts have kept tax increases for the new fiscal year to near-record lows, a boon to residents struggling to keep afloat in the weak economy.

Two districts — Penn Manor and Pequea Valley — aren't raising property taxes at all for 2009-10, and tax hikes countywide average just 3.1 percent, the lowest average increases in at least three years.

But those relatively modest hikes come with a cost — in staff and program cuts, depleted fund balances and reductions in spending on everything from vehicles and computers to sports programs and textbooks.

And if state funding for education falls short of what many districts are counting on, schools may have to implement additional cuts that are likely to be more painful.

About half the county's 17 districts budgeted the full amount Gov. Ed Rendell proposed in his original $29 billion spending plan, which called for a 5 percent average increase in basic education subsidies for county schools.

But the Legislature is unwilling to support the tax increases the governor says are needed to balance the budget and fill a projected $3.2 billion shortfall in state revenue.

That makes full funding for education an unlikely scenario when a state budget is finally approved.

Also looming for districts is a projected five-fold increase in the money they must pay into the state employee retirement fund for teachers and administrators beginning in 2012-13.

Despite these fiscal challenges, school officials said they had an obligation to keep tax hikes as low as possible to help taxpayers riding out the rocky economy.

"What we heard (from the public) was it's time to tighten the belts a little bit, it's time to make do with what we have," said Bryant Ferris, president of the Pequea Valley school board.

"We decided to draw a line in the sand."

The district's no-tax-hike budget is the first ever in Ferris' five years on the board.

Pequea Valley was able to balance the budget by reducing contributions to its self-insurance program, eliminating three vacant staff positions and implementing other cuts.

Penn Manor avoided a tax hike by diverting $1.2 million from its fund balance into the general fund, eliminating a vacant teaching position and freezing building budgets at 2008-09 levels.

Other districts have made similar moves to cut costs and minimize tax increases.

Octorara eliminated two elementary teaching positions and coordinators for its bullying-prevention and volunteer programs.

The district also scrapped its indoor track program and instituted a $35 student fee for participating in sports or other extracurricular activities.

Ephrata will begin charging students for behind-the-wheel driving instruction in the fall, and several districts are delaying the purchase of new computers, maintenance vehicles and supplies.

Eastern Lancaster County School District is not replacing six retiring employees, and Lampeter-Strasburg is eliminating nontenured teaching positions and not replacing teachers on sabbatical to cut expenses by about $265,000.

In Warwick, officials plan to use about $3.5 million from the district's fund balance to recoup revenue losses caused by the economic downturn, business manager David Zerbe said.

The district is anticipating a $175,000 decline in investment income, a $200,000 drop in real estate transfer tax revenue and declines in property tax payments in 2009-10.

"If all those numbers are added up, that's half a million dollars," Zerbe said. "We have to come back and ask ourselves, 'How do we make that up; what do we trim?' "

To cut expenses, the district has frozen spending for textbooks, computers and other supplies at 2008-09 levels.

Warwick's budget includes no increase in state funding for 2009-10, despite the nearly $800,000 in additional money promised in Rendell's budget.

Five other districts have hedged their bets and included less funding than what Rendell proposed.

But the others have budgeted for the full amount.

If that money doesn't materialize, they may have to resort to drastic cost-cutting measures.

School District of Lancaster, for instance, could find itself about $6 million short of what it expects from the state, which provides nearly half of district revenue.

The impact would be "devastating," superintendent Pedro Rivera has said.

SDL would be forced to consider cutting back on its pre-kindergarten and middle school sports programs, eliminating school resource officers at its secondary schools and cutting up to 32 teachers and several administrators, guidance counselors and professional development coaches.

Despite the threat that such cuts may be needed, the board last week approved a budget that raises taxes by 3.52 percent — the lowest amount in six years — rejecting a proposed 4.45 percent hike.

"The financial side of myself and the business side clearly indicated we should have gone for a larger increase," board president Patrick Snyder said.

"But the reality of today, unfortunately, is that board members, including myself, could not go to the maximum level at this time, with people out of jobs and facing higher state taxes.

"It goes back to the economic times we're in," he said. "There is a limit to what we can tax."

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com


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Showing 5 most recent comments out of 15 total TalkBack comments about this article
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QUOTE (Pericles @ Jul 5 2009, 05:53 PM)
Another unimaginative school board member making excuses and not offering any facts to support this same, tired argument.

Layout the state and federal funding and show us where there have been cuts. You've gotten more money recently than ever before.

You have enough money. Each year you ask for more and more, to create new programs and hire new staff.


Sorry, you shouldn't assume. I am NOT nor have I EVER been a school board member. Although I've considered it maybe in the future... when my children are older

More kids in a district means more staff. Not every district in the area is getting larger, but many are. You seem very angry without all the facts. Being angry is everyone's right, but maybe you should do something with that anger rather than spout angry words at people you don't know.
musichollie
QUOTE (musichollie @ Jul 6 2009, 12:26 AM)
Sorry, you shouldn't assume. I am NOT nor have I EVER been a school board member. Although I've considered it maybe in the future... when my children are older

More kids in a district means more staff. Not every district in the area is getting larger, but many are. You seem very angry without all the facts. Being angry is everyone's right, but maybe you should do something with that anger rather than spout angry words at people you don't know.


First I'm not a good citizen, and now I'm angry. Give me a break.

What facts am I missing? You haven't presented one fact. But here are some facts:
K-12 Public Education spending has skyrocketed:Since 1970, public school spending increased from $2.3 billion to $24 billion—a 956% increase.Over the past 25 years, per-pupil spending has increased 364% (vs. inflation of 141%).Under Gov. Rendell, state spending on K-12 education has increased 43%. K-12 Public Education performance has stagnated:The average combined verbal and math SAT scores of Pennsylvania students has dropped from 1,000 in 1986 to 995 in 2008—even among “high participation rate” states, PA ranks among the worst performing.Rigorous academic studies have found little or no correlation between student achievement and class size, teacher salaries, or per-pupil expenditures.
Pericles
Great facts pericles.

Yet people don't understand why some of us don't think the government can fix health care?
Shirley U Geste
School systems need to be accountable for the money they've spent in the past before they should be lavished with more unaccountable money in the future.

Education must be outcome based and not established to set the pace of learning at the speed of the slowest learners. Graduating too high a percentage of young adults who lack the competitiveness, skills and personal drive necessary to obtain (and keep) higher paying jobs is helping to kill the American spirit and assisting the march towards socialism.

Continuing to spend more unaccountable money to prepare graduates for jobs which can be simply filled by the increasing masses of uneducated illegal aliens is pure societal suicide.

On a happy note, at least these some of these kids have been taught lots of self esteem and feel good about themselves as they compete for available jobs at the fast food suppliers. Many of them are too slow to realize that they have been used as excuses to throw even more money at an education system that places the financial priority and health of the educators way above the outcomes of those educated.

P.S. It's not the teachers fault ... it's the lack of awareness and lack of civic duty of the voting public who's been asleep at the wheel for way too long.
ReaganRepublican
I know that I will get a lot of negative feedback on this but I was wondering how much all them extra curricular activities cost? You know, football teams, soccer teams, etc.
I am not saying that they are not good things but it seems to me that the schools primary objective is to educate kids. I would think that extra curricular activities could be cut somewhat to reduce spending. Sports do mold children's character but they are not a necessary thing . If sports are a kids thing than there are other alternatives.

Another thing that I was wondering about is how much insurance costs factor into a school budget.
Rush2ny
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