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UASD approves tentative budget

By Eric Morris emorris@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read

Uniontown Area School Board approved a tentative budget for the 2016-17 school year that carries a $3.7 million shortfall.

The board voted 6-1 in favor of the $46.5 million preliminary budget, which includes sizeable increases in employee salaries and benefits and district debt service payments.

Expenses in the proposed budget represent a $3.9 million increase compared to the previous budget.

Employee salaries increased $839,012, benefits increased $1 million and debt service payment increased $1.4 million.

“Those three items are items (for which) there can be very little, if any adjustment, and there can be no adjustment to the debt service payment,” Superintendent Dr. Charles Machesky told the board Monday.

“And the only way there can be any adjustment to the salary and benefits (is) if there’s a reduction in staff,” he added.

Machesky indicated that there are several employees planning to retire at the end of the school year and that the district does not intend to fill their positions, which is already represented in the budget figure.

If no changes are made prior to adopting a final budget, the district will be forced to dip into a $7 million fund balance to cover the deficit.

The 2015-16 budget was $42.6 million.

School director Bill Gerke cast the lone dissenting vote.

School directors Terry Dawson and Bill Rittenhouse were absent from the meeting.

In other matters, the board authorized district bond counsel to sell up to $12 million in district general obligation bonds that will be used to refund debt and complete capital improvements in five schools.

Machesky said the board must decide whether to approve a $7.5 million bond for the refinancing of existing debt that would give the district an immediate $400,000 refund, or a $10 million bond, of which about $2.5 million would go toward the installation of central air conditioning at Uniontown Area High School and Franklin, Menallen, Marclay and Wharton elementary schools.

The second option would increased the district’s debt service payments by $210,000 for 10 years.

“Seven-point-five million dollars of this is refinancing of an existing debt, which would net us an immediate savings of $400,000,” said Machesky. “In order to complete the much discussed and talked about air conditioning improvements at the (five) schools listed, the additional $2.5 million would be necessary.”

Machesky said the board has until the end of the fiscal year to determine the route the district will take.

Turning to other business, the board named the following high school head coaches for the 2016-17 school year: Kenneth Musko, baseball, $2,987; Joseph Everhart, cross country, $3,883; Steve Forsythe Sr., softball, $3,823; and Katie Turner, boys’ swimming, $4,481.

Wyatt Wilson was named high school auditorium director, and Justin Cerullo was named high school drill team director.

The board also approved the high school summer school program to run June 6-20, offering math, science, social studies, language arts and physical education courses.

Uniontown students are eligible if their end-of-course grade is 50-66 percent. The cost to attend is $50 for Uniontown students and $100 for students from other school districts.

Also Monday, the board:

n Accepted the retirements of Lafayette School custodian Fred Rankin and secretary Patricia Shanaberger.

n Added Lindsey Clark, Kristen Monahan, Kaitlyn Strosnider and Courteney Ulrich to the professional substitute list at $100 a day.

n Approved a memorandum of understanding with state police and Uniontown Police to provide law enforcement within the district in accordance with the state Safe Schools Act.

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