Schools
BASD 2011-12 Budget Passed
The $203.8 million budget will eliminate an estimated 145 jobs and require a 1.7 percent tax increase.
In a 6-3 vote, after months of discussion, the Bethlehem Area School Board approved the 2011-12 budget.
Calling for a 1.7 percent increase in taxes, the $203.8 million budget will eliminate the equivalent of 145 jobs in the district, 79 of which are teaching positions. A total of 39 of the teaching and 14 of the non-teaching positions will be eliminated through attrition, Superintendent Joseph Roy said. The remainder will be furloughed.
The district's financial outlook also necessitated drastic cutbacks in the district's pre-kindergarten SPARK program, and the elimination of full-day kindergarten classes and the middle school soccer program.
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Board members Loretta Leeson, Linda Follweiler and Benjamin Tenaglia voted against the budget's passage.
Leeson said she couldn't support the plan due to a lack of data-driven decision making.
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She said she wasn't opposed to raising taxes, but she was opposed to doing so when the root issues haven't been addressed.
“This is not a sustainable budget,” Leeson said. “The five-year scenario is dire.”
Tenaglia indicated he opposed raising taxes, particularly in difficult economic times.
Other board members said they supported the new budget, albeit reluctantly.
Board member Aurea Ortiz said she wanted to make it clear that some of the programs being cut should be reinstated as soon as financially feasible.
“Forty percent of our kids are Spanish-speaking, and we just got rid of 16 bilingual personnel,” she said. “My intent in this is to make sure our priorities are clear. We're not going to recreate different programs; we need to support the programs that worked.”
She added that she felt the budget was far from perfect, but the district needed to work with what is has.
“We have to find common ground, and we have to start somewhere,” she said.
Member Michael Faccinetto was less conciliatory.
“First off, I hate this budget,” he said, adding that it would be easy to blame state budget cuts and other outside influences for the difficult choices the district needs to make.
“The fact is, we the board took an oath to support this district and the blame cannot go further than this room,” Faccinetto said. “There are no easy targets to cut. I would have supported an even higher tax increase to save these programs.”
