Cal balances budget with no tax increase or furloughs
?CALIFORNIA — The California Area School Board Wednesday adopted a 2011-12 budget of $13.7 million with no tax increase and no furloughs.
The budget does, however, call for the use of about $1 million of the district’s $1.7 million fund balance and reduces faculty and staff through retirements and attrition.
Superintendent Linda Mancini said there will only be three kindergarten classes this year instead of four, but class size will remain at 20 students per class because of decreased enrollment.
The district realized savings of $333,000 by taking over some special education services previously handled by the Intermediate Unit 1. The board voted to hire special education teachers Arleen Powell, Jennifer Perecko, Nick Damico and Jamey Friend, as well as speech teacher Dawn Escott.
“These are the IU staff that we are taking over,” said school director Amy Todd.
The board also voted to create the position of technology education, hiring Matthew Barber for that job, taking the place of a computer teacher who retired.
Among the items cut from the budget was the high school boys’ tennis team. The board was under the impression that with the graduation of seven of the team members, there was only one boy left on the team. Coach Martha Hall asked that the sport be continued, saying she has underclassmen interested in playing, providing the district with the necessary minimum of seven players for WPIAL competition. Hall said she is concerned that if the program is cut for a year, it will be reduced to club status in the future, affecting the sports program.
The board assured Hall that the WPIAL would be notified to keep the district on the schedule for now, noting that tennis is a spring sport, so there is still time to return the sport to the budget if enough boys are participating. The cut saved the district about $7,000, according to business manager Tracy Harris.
The board did approve Hall’s use of the tennis courts for tennis lessons this summer for both children and adults and board president John Bayer told Hall the district is looking for a donor for construction of a fourth tennis court.
It was also clarified that the district is not contributing any funding toward football and band camps held off campus, though both organizations are permitted to raise funds to cover the cost of camps at colleges in the region.