School Tax Increase of 1.7 Percent all but Certain

While not official, Bethlehem Area School District residents can expect to see a 1.7 percent (.75 mills) tax increase for next year.

School board members agreed by a narrow margin at a budget hearing Tuesday evening that the increase is preferable to further cuts that would have been necessary to provide a zero-tax-increase budget in the face of reduced state education funding.

Board members dissenting from any increase included Irene Follweiler, Rosario Amato, and Benjamin Tenaglia.

Member Loretta Leeson also dissented, saying she couldn't support a tax increase when the district is likely to end the year with an almost $2 million surplus, the result of penny-pinching in day-to-day operations.

The increase will cost the average homeowner about $56 more per year, officials have estimated, and it will bring an estimated $2.1 million in revenue to the district.

Suggested cuts to make the budget balance have been spread across all grade levels and schools, but officials have taken care to keep class sizes small and core academic subjects a priority, they've said.

“Many of the cuts we are recommending are difficult to make. We're at 1.7 percent, however, we do have exceptions that would allow us to go higher,” Superintendent Joseph Roy said. “I do want to make the point that further cuts would get inside the classroom circle.”

Staff cuts seem a certainty. A total of nearly 175 jobs are on the line, 96.5 teaching positions, and 78 non-teaching jobs are to be eliminated.

Roy said in the past, staff cuts have been “absorbed through attrition, but that's not the case this year.”

“The board's direction on this budget is critical when it comes to implementing them,” Roy added.

The district schedule indicates that tentative teacher assignments are scheduled for June 8, five days before the board expects to formally adopt the budget.

Board members indicated they will likely take some expenses that were to be eliminated and swap them for others, saying some of the proposed cuts need to be reexamined.

“I don't know how we can live with the fact that we're going to bring kids to school, but not bring them home. Not at 4 and 5 years old,” director Michael Faccinetto said.

It is expected that homeward bound bus transportation for SPARK classes and kindergarten will be restored to the 2011-12 budget. Board members also said they supported keeping guidance counselor to student ratios at current levels, taking the idea of an extracurricular activities fee off the table and revoking the idea of allowing high school seniors to leave school early.

The changes leave a funding gap of about $685,000, but the board and administrators said alternative cuts will be considered.

These may include looking at the school libraries and at athletic staffing, members indicated. The board also said they would look to their own expenses to see if there was anything that could be eliminated there, such as whether it would be more frugal to eliminate the Pennsylvania School Board Association membership and pay for needed services from the organization piece-rate.

“The sooner we can give the administration the final signals, the sooner we can start talking to people so they can plan what they're going to do with the rest of their lives,” said board vice-president William Burkhardt.

Upcoming BASD budget meetings:

• Budget hearing and special school board directors meeting, Monday, May 9, following the 6 p.m. finance committee meeting, East Hills Middle School in the auditorium. Discussion of final budget, preliminary approval of a final draft is planned.