Pleas from Southmoreland employees, parents and students help prevent proposed cuts
After special meetings both Wednesday and Thursday to better hash out a potential $1.8 million deficit approved in the preliminary budget, Southmoreland School Board members passed a final budget Thursday that included the maximum tax increase allowed by the Act 1 index.
With expenditures of $30,565,385 and revenues of $30,200,014, the final budget used $365,371 from their fund balance to balance the budget.
The tax increase in the proposed budget raises the millage rate for Westmoreland County residents from 74.61 mills to 77.15 mills and for Fayette County residents from 14.9982 mills to 15.5081 mills.
That is the highest increase the district could propose through the parameters of the Act 1 index without seeking any special exceptions. Since the enactment of the Act 1 legislation, the district has never sought a special exception to raise taxes higher than the allotted percentage within the Act 1 index.
And while there were a few individuals who attended meetings on June 21, June 27 and June 28 to ask that taxes not be increased, the majority of the more than 40 different speakers over those three meetings were concerned with proposed personnel and program cuts.
At the request of Director Ken Alt to make five percent cuts across the board, administrators presented a list of cuts on June 21 that called for the elimination of two teaching positions, the district’s cross country, golf and tennis sports, and outsourcing the aides for the autistic program as well as other teaching assistants.
The latter caused a huge outcry from those aides as well as from the parents of autistic students, but members of the community, parents and students also came to plead that the board not cut the middle school computer science program; the cross country, golf and tennis programs; the middle school foreign language program; the cutback of custodian hours; the elimination of one librarian; and the elimination of one secretary at the Southmoreland Primary Center – all of which were on the list of cuts.
Their voices were heard as the budget that was passed Thursday night removed almost all of those things from the list of cuts.
The autistic support aides will remain employed with the district and keep their current benefits, the middle school computer science program will continue, one librarian position won’t be eliminated and the job of one secretary at the Southmoreland Primary Center will remain.
However, a resolution was passed stating that at the July 12 meeting, the board will take action on eliminating two positions at the middle school – the French teacher and the Spanish teacher.
These positions were not included in the final 2018-19 budget. The elimination of 16 additional evening custodial hours remained on the cut list as well.
As for the elimination of the tennis, cross country and golf programs, they will all remain. However, directors agreed to instate a pay-to-play program where any student participating in a sport or the marching band will have to pay a $50 activity fee.
This fee will be a one-time fee each year, and students can participate in as many sports programs as they would like for that fee. For those families who have multiple children participating in band or sports, the family would pay $50 for their first child and $25 for each child after that.
As for those who might not be able to afford the fee, directors said they will look at fundraising options and maybe even consider no activity fee be required for those students who receive a free or reduced lunch.
Some of the other cuts that will be made include the elimination of activity buses, the elimination of one student bus run and one coach each from the following sports programs: junior varsity basketball, seventh-grade basketball coach, middle school girls’ basketball, one middle school assistant football coach, one middle school boys’ soccer assistant coach, one middle school girls’ soccer assistant coach, one junior varsity softball coach, one middle school track assistant coach, one middle school assistant volleyball coach and one middle school wrestling assistant coach.
Other cuts included the elimination of the accelerated reader program, the afterschool tutoring program, the tutoring transportation, district funding of adult commencement regalia, the commencement bagpiper, technology infrastructure upgrades, custodial supplies and the reduction of the district-wide textbook replacement allocation.
The Study Island program at the elementary school and middle school will be replaced with a free resource from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
To counterbalance not cutting the big-ticket items, the board cut over $412,000 in expenses by cutting out any proposed increases for the 2018-19 school year back to the same amount that was in the 2017-18 budget.
The budget also shows $25,000 in revenue by allowing teachers to pay $5 every Friday to wear jeans.