Laurel Highlands board approves tentative $33.12 million budget
Laurel Highlands School Board has passed a $33,121,763 tentative budget for 2003-2004 – but the proposal covers only expenses, leaving the revenue side unknown. “This is just a tentative figure. It cannot increase, but it can definitely decrease,” said director Tom Vernon, who heads the finance, budget and taxation committee.
The vote was unanimous. Director Shirley Kefover was absent.
Vernon said no revenue figure was listed because the district does not know what its state funding allocation will be, a fund balance could be left in the current budget and real-estate taxes for this fiscal year are still being collected.
The board scheduled a June 20 meeting to adopt a final budget, and Vernon said he will hold committee meetings to work out the budget details before then.
The 2002-2003 budget that the board adopted last July for this waning fiscal year totaled $31,025,045, or $2,096,718 more than the 2003-2004 projected expenses.
The school board held an executive session before voting on the tentative budget. Solicitor Gary Frankhouser said the reason for the private meeting was for discussion of specific people and general positions that could be affected by deletions or changes in the budget. The board also voted to allow the superintendent to realign staff in the event of deletions or additions and to post any vacancies that could result from such a realignment. The board also voted for the solicitor to notify those who might be affected.
Frankhouser said the board was asked to take the vote as a tentative measure in case the budget calls for any deletions of programs that would require changes in the staff.
Business manager Joyce Estocak said at a work session before the recent business meeting that a number of items worth a collective $737,000 were cut from the proposed expenses before the school board received the tentative outline for their consideration and vote.
For example, she said $356,000 came out of the supplies and services category of the budget. She also listed $93,000 cut from group insurance, $145,000 trimmed from salaries for positions like a special education teacher and teachers’ aides that could have been added to the budget, $50,000 from vocational-technical school tuition, $45,000 from athletic and operation/maintenance supplies and $40,000 from technology equipment. She said another $8,000 was deleted that represented the purchase of a wrestling mat that could instead be paid for through the district’s capital fund.
“We still have to study revenue,” Estocak said.
Among other matters, the school board accepted the retirements of Judy Johnson, 35 years’ service, third-grade teacher at Hutchinson Elementary School; Bernadette Ptak, 35 years’ service, second-grade teacher at Hutchinson; Kathryn Cindric, 36 years’ service, third-grade teacher at Marshall Elementary School; and Shirley Silbaugh, 31 years’ service, fourth-grade teacher at Marshall.
The retirements were made effective June 4, and director Angelo Giachetti commented that the retirees have more than 100 years of teaching experience.
The board granted Margaret Wilson, fourth-grade teacher at Hutchinson, a sabbatical leave for the first semester of the 2003-2004 school year.
The board voted to move Joe Smochinsky from a maintenance I to a maintenance II position and named Charles Masterbray to a maintenance I position. They acknowledged Robert Mansberry as the successful bidder for a 12-month custodial position at Kennedy Elementary School and accepted the resignation of Terry Karpel as a 12-month custodian at the junior high school.
Also, the board accepted the resignation of Ron Morris as head girls’ cross-country coach and agreed to post the position. They noted Morris did not resign from the position as head girls’ track coach.