Jun 24, 2002 By Christine Haines 3 min read

CALIFORNIA – The California Area School Board has adopted a 2002-2003 budget – with no increase in taxes. The general fund budget of $11,460,097 holds property taxes at 91.07 mills. The budget includes funds for new textbooks. The board also approved the purchase of new books for a variety of math, social studies, history, science and language arts classes, in the hopes of having them available at the start of the school year.

“We had a bit of a fluke this year. We refinanced a bond, and when we refinanced it, it paid for the payments on another bond. That gave us 13 mills to put back into our budget,” said Dr. Marian Stephens, the district superintendent.

Stephens said her recommendation was for a small tax increase to offset anticipated financial problems in the 2003-2004 school year, but the budget and finance committee opted for a zero-mill hike.

The board also approved a pay raise of 2.6 percent for administrators, secretaries and teacher aides for the coming school year. The administrators include the high school principal and assistant principal, the elementary principal, and the technology coordinator. Directors John Bayer, Barry Niccolai and Nancy Pinardi voted against the increase.

The board also voted to realign the administration as of the start of the 2002-2003 school year, resulting in one fewer administrator in the fall. The board voted to eliminate the positions of assistant high school principal, assistant middle school principal and K-8 principal. The new alignment includes a high school principal, a middle school principal and a K-5 principal.

Charles Geyer will remain the high school principal, assistant high school principal Joetta Britvich will become the middle school principal and current K-8 principal Mary Lee Kalocay will become the K-5 principal. Bayer, Niccolai and Pinardi opposed the realignment plan.

The board also approved participation in the Starbase Atlantis program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. All fifth-grade students will participate in the program, designed to encourage students to consider science careers.

Stephens said the students will spend one full day a week for five weeks learning about rockets and submarines and other science-based career options. The U.S. Navy will offer the program in Pittsburgh. California is one of only two suburban school districts participating in the program.

“It really is due to the efforts of Mrs. Sue Dillon who was very excited about the program and worked very hard to bring it to California,” Stephens said.

She said state Rep. Peter Daley (D-California) and U.S. Rep. Frank Mascara (D-Charleroi) were extremely helpful in getting permission for California to participate in the program. This will be the first year the program has been offered in the Pittsburgh area.