LH tables budget vote until next week
Laurel Highlands School Board will wait until the last minute to adopt a final 2002-2003 budget, having tabled the vote Wednesday until next week. At this point, having come out with some firmer figures than were discussed at previous meetings, the board is looking to make up a $873,247 deficit between the projected $31.06 million expenses and anticipated $30.19 million revenue.
If nothing else changes before they adopt the final budget, Superintendent Dr. Ronald Sheba said the board would need a tax hike of 4.36 mills to balance the budget. That amount would be added to 2 mills the board needs to cover payment on a $2.97 million bond issue for unfunded debt from the 2001-2002 budget.
“We’ve (administrators) been sitting here most of the day going over category by category, trying to brainstorm,” Sheba said at a finance committee meeting before the business meeting.
He said much had already been cut, and they would work further to see if any other changes may be made. District officials prepared this budget in six weeks, when the normal process takes about six months, Sheba added.
Director Tom Vernon, who heads the board’s finance committee, said the difficulty in preparing this budget came about because the school board members and administrators thought they had a positive fund balance but found out through the annual audit that the fund balance was actually in the red. He said they received false information from the former business manager, Ronald Aikins, who retired in May.
The board discovered in April, through the audit of the previous year’s finances, that the district would not have enough cash on hand to finish out this fiscal year and got permission from the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas to float a bond issue to cover the debts.
The board passed a resolution Wednesday night to go ahead with the bond issue through Nat City Investments, with the repayment not to exceed 10 years. The move passed on an 8-0 vote, with President Edward S. George absent.
The directors scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday at 9 p.m. to consider a vote. The board noted that the district has payroll obligations to meet next Wednesday morning.
Vernon said board is waiting for news of a final Pennsylvania budget and the amount Laurel Highlands may expect in state subsidies.
“We haven’t got any information back from the state,” Vernon said, making the motion to table the budget and taxes.
According to the proposed budget by Gov. Mark Schweiker, school districts could expect their same subsidies from the last year plus a 1-percent increase for basic education and a 1.5-percent hike for special education. Other proposals have come up with nothing final. The fiscal year ends June 30 for the state and school districts.
The school board adopted a tentative $31.8 million budget last month. Sheba said they had started the process of preparing the budget with a total of $32.8 million worth of proposed expenses.
Among some of the cuts quoted Wednesday were $454,000 from retirees’ salaries and health insurance, about $300,000 in savings by realigning staff, about $120,000 by eliminating 12 classroom and special education aides, about $133,000 by not replacing retired custodians, about $90,000 from school security and $10,000 for travel by school board members and administrators.
No one from the audience spoke out regarding the budget, but, just before adjourning, director Angelo Giachetti, who led the meeting in the president’s absence, acknowledged a number of employees present.
“I know there is a lot of concern about this budget,” he said. “There is no job cutting. You people will still have your jobs.”
In other matters, the board hired John Diamond as high school principal, voting to negotiate his salary after adopting the budget. Diamond, who received applause from the board and audience, had served as assistant principal. The principal’s position came open after the recent retirement of Michael Carbonara.
In a related move, the board agreed to post for an administrative assistant to the high school principal.
The board also voted in favor of raising the fee for student parking passes from $15 a semester, or $30 a year, to $90 a semester, or $180 a year. Some audience members said the hike was too high, but directors Julia Ciarrocchi and Judy Browell countered that the new fee is in line with other school districts’ and the funds go toward security expenses.
Further, they voted to have the solicitor bring to the next meeting names of potential special counsel that could collect the delinquent mercantile tax, which totals about $645,000. Some in attendance said this money, if collected, could help the district’s budget situation.
The board also renamed Vernon as board treasurer and director Shirley Kefover as secretary, with both relinquishing any stipend for the position this coming year.
They also agreed to work with the Group Workcamps Foundation. As part of this program, which would be held next summer, 300 to 400 young people would stay for a week at a Laurel Highlands school while they work on maintenance projects at local homes.