School Districts Across Region Cut Budgets

During his campaign last fall, now-Gov. Tom Corbett hailed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for his heavy hand in dealing with an education system that both believed was inappropriately spending residents' property tax dollars.

In his first budget, Corbett emulated Christie and cut Pennsylvania's public education funding by $1.1 billion.

Throughout the Delaware Valley, schools are dealing with the drop in state aid and declines in property tax revenue in a variety of ways, including dipping into reserve funds, cutting programs, and, ultimately for some, furloughing teachers.

Some districts, such as Philadelphia, have organized marches on Harrisburg in protest. Others are finding ways to work within the confines of tight budgets.

Cut to the Chase

Even school districts with rosy outlooks now face unanticipated cuts in state funding—many topping the millions.

The Great Valley district, for example, is leaning heavily on its reserves.

"It’s a rainy day fund, and it’s starting to rain pretty good," said Alan Lononconus, superintendent of the Malvern, Chester County, district.

Great Valley won't lay off any faculty, nor will programming be greatly impacted. But Central Bucks County was not so lucky.

The Central Bucks School District also is forced to pull from its reserve fund, to the tune of $3 million.

But it also had to narrow its remaining budget gap by raising taxes 1.34 percent and eliminating about 121 full-time equivalent positions after this year, including about 50 teaching jobs. While 20 will be lost through unfilled retirements, about 30 teachers are expected to be furloughed after this year.

"We've lost 223.5 positions since 2008," Superintendent N. Robert Laws told a standing-room-only school board meeting recently. "And still we’re unable to balance the budget, and still we must raise taxes, and still we must take money out of the bank to ensure the continuation of the district."

School officials in both Phoenixville and Marple-Newtown nearly balanced their budgets with slight tax increases before Corbett's budget arrived. The sticker shock was palpable.

"This is a massive cut; this will hurt our district and everybody else's district,” Phoenixville Board President Paul Slaninka said. “It's catastrophic, as far as I'm concerned."

Now, the tax rate at Slaninka's Chester County school district will increase 3.6 percent. Marple-Newtown taxpayers will see a 7.8 percent tax increase.

Playing the Hand Dealt

The news isn't all bleak. In Radnor, there may even be a surplus at year's end.

"We learned... that we have a budgetary remainder of $2.2 million. Maybe one way of looking at that is we overtaxed the taxpayers and we give that back in the form of a zero percent tax increase," board member Eric Zajac said.

A fellow Delaware County district, Haverford reorganized by increasing classroom sizes for elementary grade levels. Board member James Goldschmidt said it was a sign of the times.

“We don’t expect to have any negative educational impact," Goldschmidt said. "When you’re faced with dire financial times as we are now, it’s a viable option."

All districts are forced to get creative, and some are managing better than others. Bensalem schools say they have maintained a low tax rate while upholding their education standards, regardless of state funding.

“Despite the wrecking ball against the wall of education," Superintendent Bill Gretzula said, "our kids continue to excel and that puts us in very rarefied air."

Though not all schools were in the position to do it, some districts renegotiated with their teachers' unions to ensure a wage freeze.

"Here’s how I see this,” Abington school board member Barry Stupine said. “Despite a cut of 12 percent from the state, which is over $2 million, reassessments adversely affecting us by about $400,000, (and the) cutting of federal funds by 30 percent, we’re presenting a balanced budget with no tax increase.”

West Chester teachers voluntarily accepted a pay freeze, but the district's superintendent said the Chester County school can only rearrange so much.

“We’ve cut $10 million in expenses in the last two years,” Dr. Jim Scanlon said. “If that continues, we will begin to erode the quality of our programs.”

The Bigger They Are...

Special situations and sheer size drastically affected certain districts.

Newtown's Council Rock is grappling with a $14.2 million budget gap, which has been narrowed with a combination of cuts, staff reductions, and fund balance application. Forty-two teachers are slated to lose their jobs.

In Limerick, the Spring-Ford Area School District is facing a budget deficit of almost $12 million. In addition to the loss of state and federal revenue, a raft of property assessment appeals means this Montgomery County district may have to refund millions in property taxes collected since 2007. Glaxo-Smith Kline is the big ticket here; the firm is seeking a refund of $5.5 million in previously paid taxes.

"These figures... this is horrific. I mean, $5.5 million, we've got to cut a check... that's coming right out of (the budget). We don't operate at a profit here," said board member David Shafer.

More than 60 jobs are expected to be eliminated, including at least 14 teaching positions from kindergarten to eighth grade.

The largest school district in the area saw the largest cuts. The School District of Philadelphia will eliminate 3,820 jobs to balance its budget.

“Kindergarten, early childhood programs, the instrumental music programs, athletics, counselors, psychologists, special ed, alternative ed, English language learning programs… you will see the level of the reductions that we are proposing. I will tell you that there are reductions in all of those areas,” finance officer Michael Masch said.

"It is, as we have said, not a budget that we gladly present to the School Reform Commission or to the people of Philadelphia.”

Patch editors Jennifer Kim, Kaitlyn Foti, Jake Speicher, Lynn Jusinski, Bob Byrne, Kara Seymour, Leann Pettit, Theresa Katalinas, Mischa Arnosky, David Powell, Pete Kennedy and Sarah Larson, and Patch contributors Alicia Guide, Vic Monaco, Alyson D'Alessandro and Joe Ferry contributed to this report.