Proposed School Budget Unveiled at Public Hearing

The Lacey Board of Education introduced its budget for the 2011-12 school year Monday night, while fielding comments from the general public.

The proposed budget is $68,868,794 with a local tax levy of $39,413,121. The board is calling for no increase in local taxes as they were able to use funds generated by a solar energy initiative and a staff salary freeze in the current school year to offset any spending increases in the budget.

“I believe this budget is an excellent budget for the taxpayers. It is pretty hard to get better than zero,” said Superintendent Richard Starodub.

The board’s presentation stated this was the second year in a row that there will be no tax increase in a school budget that has to serve the needs of 4,748 students, including 856 special education students.

The presentation also pointed out that teacher salaries in Lacey are 13 percent below the state average, and credited staff for taking a pay freeze last year in the face of $7 million in cuts to state funding to the district in the past two years.

“Our students have their work cut out for them, and we have our work cut out for us preparing them for the future,” said Starodub.

Starodub also pointed to three major goals in the proposed budget: the introduction of a new math curriculum for grades K-2, an upgrade of computers for the middle school, and the implementation of the scholastic read 180 program to help special needs children in the intermediate grades who have trouble reading.

The district is able to implement the aforementioned improvements without raising taxes due to the solar project, the salary freeze and attrition, Starodub said. He said 16 positions lost due to retirement have not been filled at a savings of $850,000.

Public questions, comments

During the public comment period, an unidentified woman asked how employee health benefits are funded in the budget.

Local taxpayers pay 62 percent of the costs, while state aid covers the remaining costs, Starodub said.

She also asked if there were any new positions included in the proposed budget.

There would be 10 part-time duty aides to watch the entrances to the schools, with two of them being assigned to each school excluding the high school, business Administrator James Savage said.

Starodub said currently each school is handling the monitoring of the entrances differently including some using custodians and secretaries in that role.

“Obviously secretaries and custodians are not hired to do that kind of work. We felt a small allocation of part-time work would better fill the need,” said Starodub.

Terry Sullivan commended the board on the hiring of the part-time monitors.

“In this day and age of Pennsylvania and Columbine we might want to make sure we have stability at the front door,” Sullivan said.

Lacey resident Bill Mott asked if any pension payments to retirees are included in the budget, to which Savage responded that those payments are made by the state and not the local district.

Mott also asked what the school tax rate would be; to which Savage put it at 92.63 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Lacey resident Paul Boening said he was in favor of the school budget even though his two children have already graduated out of the district and completed college.

“I want to express my appreciation for the 26 years I have lived here to this district. My kids are out of school now, but we have other kids here who need an education,” said Boening.

Boening said he was tired of hearing criticisms of teacher pay. He said in Lacey of 406 staff members only three earn more than $100,000 per year—one teacher and two child study team members. He then challenged critics to look to the county and state government and compare how many employees they have earning over $100,000.

Tim O’Connor disagreed with Boening, stating while he would agree that about 25 percent of Lacey’s teachers are underpaid, he said 65 of them earn over $60,000 per year.

The median teacher salary in the district is $49,000 per year, while the starting salary is $43,000 per year; it takes approximately nine years for a teacher to reach the median level, Board Vice President James Martenak said.

“I think they are grossly underpaid,” said Martenak of the district’s teachers.

Members of the board spoke in favor of the budget.

“The one thing I have to say is the better the school, the better the community, so if you care for Lacey Township support the schools,” said board member Maureen Tirella. “If you nickel and dime the school so we can’t do our job you won’t have a good tax rate because you will not be able to sell your home if the schools are no good.”

Following the board’s comments the board unanimously voted to approve sending the proposed budget to the public for consideration. The public vote on the budget will be Wednesday, April 27 from 3 to 9 p.m. at the regular polling places.