CB School Board Approves 2011-2012 Budget

Despite pleas to delay their decision, the Central Bucks School Board on Tuesday night approved a controversial $280.6 million spending plan for 2011-2012.

Several members of the public spoke, asking the board to table the budget for further study.

But board members said they and the district's administrators have been poring over the budget line by line since December.

"This has been looked at by this board over and over again," said board member Stephen Corr, adding that every aspect of the district's operations has been scrutinized in finance committee meetings, which are open to the public.

In the end, board member Geri McMullin said, it is up to the school board to make the hard decisions.

"We started working on this in December. Here it is the end of May," said McMullin, who has been on the school board for 28 years. "We have done due diligence. Our administration has done a creative job trying to get this budget to balance."

That balancing act has required layoffs, a tax increase, pulling from fund balance, and more.

To balance the budget, the district will eliminate 120 positions; most of those being laid off will be informed of their fate on Friday.

Next year's budget also calls for a 1.34-percent property tax increase (about $64 for the owner of a property assessed at the district average of $40,000) and the use of just over $3 million from the district’s fund balance.

The vote was unanimous (9-0) to adopt the budget.

“This is no fun,” said Superintendent N. Robert Laws. “No one wants to do this. But if we want to continue to have a strong performance in the classroom, there has to be a change in the way we do things.”

Under normal circumstances, a budget that reduces spending by $2.5 million, as this one does, would be cause for celebration. In Central Bucks, it was a cause for consternation, especially among the 37 bus drivers whose to First Student, a transportation company that already handles a portion of the district’s bus runs.

Once again, a vocal contingent of drivers and their supporters made their presence felt at the meeting, accusing First Student of lax hiring practices and a shoddy safety record while extolling the virtues of the CB Transportation drivers.

Georgia Presti, the mother of a special needs student with autism, said her daughter needs to be transported by drivers and aides who have undergone thorough background checks.

“I am opposed [to the district] outsourcing transportation to First Student or any other company,” she said. “We have to maintain safety and control over these services.”

Mary Lou Streznewski, who taught English at CB East for 24 years, accused the board of treating public education like it is a business, cutting employees and outsourcing services during tough economic times just to save money. She asked the board to table a vote on the budget “until you take a look at what it looks like from the outside.”

Streznewsi, who described herself as a lifelong member of the National Education Assocation and a “loyal member of the Central Bucks Education Association who walked my share of picket lines,” said she was sure teachers would accept a two-year pay freeze to help balance the budget if all other employees in the district would do the same.

Board members reminded the drivers that their union as part of a contract settlement five years ago. They urged drivers to encourage their leadership to come to the bargaining table with concessions that could save more drivers' jobs from being outsourced in the future.

As he has done several times during this budget season, CB Business Manager Dave Matyas outlined the culprits for the fiscal mess: dramatically reduced state aid and declining local revenues, especially due to real estate assessment appeals. He called it a “crisis of revenue” that costs the district about $10 million a year.

The artwork on his presentation to the public said it all – a picture of a mostly empty jar with just a few coins in it and the words “More With Less.”

The layoffs will save the district just over $5 million next year, according to Matyas. The district will shed 43.6 teachers in regular education and 6 in special education. Another half-time position in student health will be eliminated.

Laws said about 20 teachers who are expected to retire will not be replaced. The remainder will be laid off due to enrollment declines, mostly at the elementary school level. Board member Anne Hoy said the district's elementary enrollment has fallen by about 500 students.

The administrative staff will be reduced by 6.6 positions (3.6 in regular education) and 3 in facilities). The support staff will lose 64.1 positions, including 37.1 in the transportation department and 15 in administrative support.

The layoffs continue a trend that has affected the district since the beginning of the recession. With revenues dwindling, the district has lost 223.5 positions since the 2008-2009 school year.

Board member Geri McMullen took aim at legislators in Harrisburg for cutting support for public education, which she said is "on a path to destruction."

“I’m sure they're happy sitting back, watching us cope with this,” she said. “They are insulated…we are the ones who have to make the tough decisions.”

Board member Christopher Asplen said the district has looked for creative ways to cut expenses or increase revenue, including major energy savings initiatives. But those efforts still can't completely fill the hole left by Harrisburg's cuts.

"It's a scandal, but it's what we're left with," Asplen said, adding that the layoffs were a last resort. "We recognize that these are real people that we’re dealing with. Just because we sit up here and try to act professional doesn’t mean we don’t get it."