May 2, 2002 By April Straughters 4 min read

During the first of the Belle Vernon Area School District’s budget and finance committee meetings, administrators said their budgets have already been cut to the “bare bone.” The administrators said the cuts could possibly mean fewer funds for teacher supplies, textbook purchases and several academic programs.

Those possible cuts were met with little opposition, with the exception of Bellmar Middle School principal Stephen Russell, who expressed his frustration with cuts made to his accelerated reader (down from $1680 to $840), gifted (from $1,650 to $500) and drama ($787 to $775) programs and library newspaper purchases ($900 to $100).

“We’re playing with nickels and dimes here and we’re destroying programs,” he said. “I’ve done this budget for 20 years. I mean, this is the budget. Many of these costs are fixed. I put figures in here that I know I can live with to run my school.”

Principals of all five schools agreed that they are on a “very tight budget,” but said they will try to manage.

Dr. J.K. Folmar, high school principal, said his budget has been “drastically cut,” noting teachers supplies were cut by $67,192, a “seven-year low.”

“This budget represents a seven-year low. We went bare to the bones. This has been cut drastically. Our teachers can live with this budget, even though we cut supplies,” he said.

Superintendent Dr. Charles Chandler, while reviewing budgets for Marion and Rostraver elementary schools, told the committee that a $130,000 science book purchase for kindergarten through eighth grades could be postponed until next year. The current texts are 10 years old.

“If we wanted to review more closely…We could always take an extra year to (purchase new science books),” Chandler said.

Moved by Russell’s complaints, Director Dale Patterson said, “Parents are going to be on your neck and I don’t blame them. If we can buy new uniforms we should be able to buy new books and newspapers.”

But the athletic department did postpone the purchase of middle school softball uniforms, eliminating $2,800 from its budget. Several other small deductions were made, keeping the athletic department close to last year’s budget.

“We’re only over $1,502 from last year’s budget. I think that’s good,” said James Bush, athletic director.

Board President Aaron Bialon agreed. “We’re cutting athletics, not academics. We should be making people happy,” he said.

Bialon, budget and finance committee chairman, assured Russell and the others that they “still have some time to think things through and schedule other meetings.” Monday’s was the first of a series of budget and finance committee meetings expected before a tentative budget is due May 30. The final budget is due in late June.

Following the three-hour meeting, Bialon thanked administrators for keeping their budgets down.

“I want to congratulate the administration. You ran the budgets very close to what was submitted last year, with very few increases. That’s very good work on all of your behalves and we appreciate your effort,” he said, comparing each school’s prospective budget to last year’s expenses.

Rostraver Middle and Rostraver Elementary schools actually decreased their budget for 2002-2003. This year, Rostraver Middle School budgeted $276,000 and next year they are budgeted at $270,000. Rostraver Middle School’s figures are $210,000 this year and $192,000 next year.

Other schools showed only slight increases from this year with Marion Elementary School $350,000 this year to $355,000; Bellmar Middle School $230,000 to $234,000; and Belle Vernon High School $564,000 to $612,000.

Business manager Eileen Navish said everyone within the district has been economical in their spending.

“Costs are increasing, so they are being very frugal and responsive to the school district,” Navish said.

According to Navish, the 2002-2003 budget has not been fully constructed as far as total revenues and expenditures. At this point, she said they are just reviewing expenditures from every department and school, line item by line item, trying to cut costs wherever possible.

“I’m down to bare bones too, but I mean, this is what we all have to do,” she said.