Vo-tech panel scuttles child-care class
When students head back to class this fall, they will have one fewer course of study to choose at the Fayette County Area Vocational-Technical School. The vo-tech’s joint operating committee voted Thursday to eliminate the child-care program from the course offerings, beginning with the 2002-2003 school year.
The school’s director, John Fibbi, said the elimination was a tough decision that the committee had on the agenda for three months, and it kept tabling a vote.
An apparent cost-saving move, dropping the course saved about $42,500 in the $3.2 million budget the committee adopted for the year. The four school districts that comprise the vo-tech share in the budget.
“With the financial constraints of all the districts, we looked to minimize their costs at the vo-tech. All the programs were evaluated and the salaries reviewed,” Fibbi said. “They were carefully reviewed as to the viability of the program for students to make living wages on graduation from the program, and it was felt that there are other areas for students to earn higher wages with their education. That, coupled with not having to furlough staff, was considered in the decision to curtail the program.”
The child-care program employed one instructor and one aide and last had 22 to 23 students.
Fibbi said the positions could be absorbed into the staff without layoffs. He said there was a retirement elsewhere in the school, and plans were made to add an instructor to the food service program. Since eliminating child-care was under consideration by the joint operating committee before school ended, students already in the program had an opportunity to talk to the guidance counselors to consider whether they may opt for another program at the school or attend their home high school, Fibbi added.
The joint operating committee – composed of three school board members each from Albert Gallatin Area, Brownsville Area, Laurel Highlands and Uniontown Area school districts – voted 9-1 to curtail the child-care program. Shirley Kefover of Laurel Highlands cast the lone dissenting vote. Edward S. George of Laurel Highlands and John Evans of Brownsville were absent.
Regarding the budget, the committee adopted the spending plan on a 10-0 vote.
Fibbi said there was little flexibility in the budget, which totals just $33,105, or 1.03 percent, more than the 2001-2002 budget. He said the budget preparation started with figures at 8 percent over the last budget, and more than $91,000 had been cut between the tentative and final budgets.
The committee named First National Bank of Pennsylvania as the lending institution for 2002-2003, on a revenue anticipation note of $2.5 million, at an interest rate of 2.59 percent, or $62,089.04.
In other business, the committee hired David Bowers as a graphic arts instructor, at a $22,000 salary, on the first step of the salary scale.
They named Dr. Gerry Grant, Brownsville’s superintendent, as the chief school administrator from July 1 to June 30, 2004.
The committee approved the continued operation of the Health Academy for the 2002-2003 school year.
They renewed the school’s insurance policies with William Rittenhouse Agency Inc. at $39,514.
The committee received a proposal for expansion of the cosmetology program as an informational item for review but did not discuss it and took no action.