Today I want to talk about the State budget and how it
affects our school district. Through the
hard work of our local legislators (particularly George Dunbar) the State
budget reflects an additional $210,000.00 to our budget. The State reinstated the Accountability
Block Grant (ABG) which the Governor had eliminated from his budget proposal. The
ABG was started under the Rendell Administration and can only be used for
certain activities. Traditionally,
Penn-Trafford has used ABG for classroom reduction purposes (to help defray the
cost of smaller class sizes in the primary elementary grades). The amount of money the district gets from
ABG is relatively steady from year to year (unless the Governor has his way and
it disappears altogether). As the school
district’s budget was built we considered the fact that there was a good chance
for the ABG to be reinstated and that it would equal about $250,000.
Therefore, the budget was built with a deficit spending amount equal to the
amount of money that the school district considered we may get from ABG. Thus, the school district’s budget calls for
$250,000 to be taken from the fund balance to balance the 2012-2013 budget. Because
ABG came in at $210,000 the school district will now only have to take $40,000
from the fund balance to balance the 2012-2013 budget. As in past years, the money will be spent to
defray the cost of keeping the primary elementary class sizes reasonably
low.
The bigger problem in school budgeting is the fact that
school districts can only guess at the amount of money they will receive from
the State. Pennsylvania is one of the
few States in America that does not have a steady, formula-based subsidy system
for schools. In other words, every year
the politicians in Harrisburg can make the decision about how much (and where)
the money will be spent. The fact that
school districts are creating budgets without any hard numbers or dollar
amounts can be trying at times. In the
upcoming years as school districts have to “adjust up” the contributions for
retirement costs (a topic I covered in another blog entry) the fact that school
districts cannot accurately predict their funding will create further challenges. However, I am not one to complain. I do wish that the politicians in Harrisburg
would be able to create a funding formula so we can do the most important job
the State is charged to do…educate our future citizens. That may be a dream for the foreseeable
future.
With all that being said, I am
so excited and optimistic about the future of our school district. We are living in a time and place in history
where future generations will look back and say “They saved public education”. We (our community, our schools, our citizens)
can (and will at P-T) innovate, change, and create new learning environments
that will prepare our students to thrive into the 21st Century. We will be able to fundamentally change what
it means to go to school in America.
After all, the system we are in now has not fundamentally changed since
it was created in the 19th Century!
Through enhanced instruction, customized learning and a curriculum meant
to address the challenges of living in the 21st Century,
Penn-Trafford will lead the way in a new educational environment. Budgets, money and politics will always be a
part of the equation, but only a small part.
The most important facet is improving educational experiences for our
students. Our school district is focused on student instruction and achievement
and creating the best learning environment for all students. Again, what a great time to be at
Penn-Trafford!
Tom, I'm a little fuzzy on the comment "Penn-Trafford has used ABG for classroom reduction purposes (to help defray the cost of smaller class sizes in the primary elementary grades)" If the smaller class sizes are an issue, can you start re-adjusting the classes from a lot of little classes to fewer larger classes (within reason for class sizes). Can you please explain or elaborate?
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, would it be prudent to budget on the thought that there will NOT be a block grant and have the PT budget revenue neutral without the grant consideration. If the grant comes in - GREAT! If the grant doesn't come in - PT is prepared to move forward and live within its means without borrowing from the future.
Keep up the good work?
Budgeting can be a difficult task, especially when the school district does not know all of the variables. We were told by our local representatives and other educational leaders in Harrisburg that the ABG would be reinstated. However, the school district had to pass a budget before the State did. We were very confident that the ABG would be reinstated, thus we budgeted for that amount to come from the fund balance. The school district has decreased teachers and increased class sizes over the past few years. The ABG monies allows the district to keep the class sizes in the primary grades at a reasonable level without having to make a big "jump" and have much larger class sizes. When (and if) we get any indication that the State will not offer the ABG then the Board will have to make some hard budgetary decisions to assure that class sizes do not get too high.
ReplyDeleteHow does the athletic program (specifically middle school athletics) fit into this year's upcoming budget and do you see a scenario that we start to reduce the athletic budget similar to what Gateway is proposing?
ReplyDeleteThe history of budget process reads like a message from dyslexia. First gotta have a union pay freeze for PSERS, to we'd do anything to get tagged items for cyber funding, but lets use reserve funds as a catch all, oh wait - cancel cyber funding tagging and make that building improvements tagging, but in the middle we got to have a tax increases to avoid a catastrophe and balance the budget, but wait then the state comes to the rescue to balance the budget. You need to convince me that this years budget process is not cooking the books for whatever message the administration wants to sell to taxpayers? I'm convinced you are stuck with a difficult process, but ....
ReplyDeleteI think the budget process is messy and ugly and difficult, with no help from the state on the timing of their budget. It's like that saying -"laws are like sausage, you don't want to see them being made". I'd add school budgets to that list.
ReplyDeleteI think we are getting a little glimpse into the process through the increased communication from dr. Butler, namely this blog and community meetings and his generally being out in the community and approachable.
It is very difficult to gauge the sincerity of a phony chameleon like Dr. Butler. Also, he should thank his lucky stars that he is an overpaid school administrator in the state of PENNSYLVANIA. PA is one of the few remaining states where the only jobs better than the union-rich, overpaid, tenured teachers are those of administration personnel like him.
ReplyDeleteWhile Dr. Butler is anything but a phoney chameleon (I appreciate his vision and plans for the district), I do not think that there is any one in ANY position in a public school system that is worth 6 figures in compensation.
DeleteSo Mr. Hokapig what do you think he should be paid?
DeleteIf Dr. Butler could get merit pay related to the school districts performance, then he should make more than the average superintendant due to the district's above average financial condition and good district student performance ratings. Same for other administrators like B Lago. Until merit pay is implemented, the average salary compared to similar functions is good enough. Compare school administrators to a person in the private sector managing about 300 people (teachers in this case) with a $50M budget. In my business, that person would make in excess of $150,000. Besides administrators, I'd pay any excellent teacher more than $100,000 if their performance were based on some type of pay for performance evaluation, otherwise much less because I don't like giving bad performers good money. Also consider that most people outside of school systems pay an additional $10,000/year for benefits that admin and teachers don't pay, and many teachers work only 9 monhts, so that needs to be reflected as an effective 35% pay increase compared to the typical worker. In general, I feel good teachers and admins don't make enough - while a good 10% should be fired.
DeleteI think that teachers and administrators should be paid what the market will bear. Currently there are more qualified teachers and qualified administrators than there are positions. That means price (salaries) go down. Benefit costs should also be shifted to the district's employees (enough of the taxpayer paying for their own benefits AND the teacher benefits).
DeleteOne need only drive by the Admin building on any given day to know that Messiurs Butler and Lago rarely work past 3 or 3:30PM. Not sure where you work, but $150k jobs require much more time and effort than put forth by those two. And don't even get me started on the teachers' hours. There can be no comparisons to the private sector for a public school district in the bubble of Penn Trafford.
DeleteFor a salary position, it's not the hours at work that matter, its working smart to get the jod done. Our concern with administrators is their perception given that decisions are made without community involvement and perhaps based on a manipulative approach to taxpayers. Fundamental questions were not answered on the budget and the adminstrators seemed to have danced around various reasons for uncertainties in budget planning. There appears to be no upper level vision for the long term to justify tagging of budget items for any purpose. Do we really need a tax increase which is now shown with state budget funding to have no basis in budget balancing? Or is a tax increase based on wanting more funds for the pet project of the day like building, cyber as identified later in the budget process? Or was the request for a union pay freeze needed to balannce the budget as the impending disaster earlier this year? Or does the state budget allocations take care of all these issues? Is this blog an attempt to educate citizens or manipulate them? Withoust answers to blog coments, the latter appear more viable. Are the administrators good at budgeting and quality education, or lucky to operate in a "rich" school district with generally quality family environments sponsoring scholastic success? We look for prof of the former. However with current PT citizen apathy, there will likely be no good quesitons or answer provided.
ReplyDeleteGreat post by PT Taxpayer Coalition. A good start for the administrators and board would be to start making videos of the board meetings available online within days of the meetings.
DeleteWhile I am respectful of the PT Taxpayer Coalition's opinion, it appears that Dr. Butler has made a sincere and sustained effort to keep the community informed. Contrary to a concern relative to community involvement, school board members represent our community, and I am encouraged regarding their due diligence. Hopefully, words like manipulative, will not have a place in response to what I believe is an excellent opportunity to communicate directly with the superintendent, lest we lose that ability. Keep up the great work Dr. Butler, and thank you!
DeleteEmphasis upon the ABG of $210,000 is not a good representation of the situation. The Penn-Trafford School District received $17,629,310, an increase of $716,304. These totals include Basic Education Funding, Accountability Block Grants, student transportation and charter school student transportation, school employees’ Social Security, and the state’s portion of pension obligations for school employees. This is an increase of $716K above what the administration and school board knew about when it approved a $470K tax increase. Two questions for the administration and school board are as follows. Since the board approved a tax increase of $470K before the increase in state funding of $716K, what is the basis for a tax increase? Can we now expect a tax decrease of $346K proposed as a consistent approach for the 2012-2013 budget?
DeleteDo we pay more in state income tax or local real estate taxes?
ReplyDeleteThe median property tax in Westmoreland County is $1,885 per year for a home worth the median value of $126,800. Westmoreland County collects, on average, 1.49% of a property's estimated fair market value as property tax. Westmoreland County has one of the highest median property tax rates in the United States, and is ranked 520th of the 3143 counties in order of average property taxes. The yearly property tax paid by Westmoreland County residents amounts to about 3.31% of their yearly income. Westmoreland County is ranked 451st of the 3143 counties for property taxes as a percentage of median income.