Plum Eyes Personnel Cuts in School Budget Crunch

Retirement incentives, layoffs and "pay to play" fees all are on the table in attempt to stave off a school district tax raise for Plum Borough.

The district will receive $1.9 million less in state funding next school year under Gov. Tom Corbett’s preliminary budget.

School board members said a budget cut was expected–but a slash, not so much.

“We’re not surprised, but we’re not pleased with the magnitude of the cuts,” said finance chairman Andrew Drake.

“Anything not restricted by contract is up for grabs,” he said.

The district, still facing a $1.6 million budget shortfall, has been scrutinizing each budget item to cut its deficit, and Drake said the biggest opportunity to cut large portions of expenses is by reducing personnel costs.

“We’re not going to find hundreds of thousands of dollars in the non-personnel areas,” Drake said.

The school board voted 5-3 at its April 26 meeting to approve a memorandum to the teachers’ union agreement for an early retirement incentive. 

Through the incentive, the board will pay all teachers who agree by May 24 to retire at the end of this school year $1,000 each month for 36 months.

Board members Sal Colella, Kevin Dowdell and Drake voted against the incentive. Shane McMasters was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

Drake said too much money is being offered for too long a period. Last time the district made this offer, it was just $600 per month, he said.

A minimum of 12 teachers must accept the early retirement incentive for it to become effective.

Ten teachers are already scheduled to retired, while the additional 12 would bring the number to 22.

"That's a large drain of highly qualified teachers," Drake said.

The school board would save about $800,000 next year from the cost-cutting incentive, Drake said.

The savings for next year, however, as well as for the years following, depends on how many retired teachers will need replacing and at what salary the replacements will cost, he said.

Dowdell voted against the measure with the position that the financial burden simply would be shifted to the retirement system (PSERS).

"Although it may look good on our books this year, ultimately we will get less money from the state which will eventually result in a tax increase or cuts in education programs," he said. "If you add the cost of the retired teacher, which includes their retirement pay, health care insurance, the incentive pay and other benefits, with the cost of the new teacher, the total cost will far exceed the cost of keeping the veteran teacher."

Newer also isn't always better, Dowdell said.

"We will be replacing many experienced teachers with novices," he said. "Although it is good to have some new teachers with new ideas and lots of energy, if we lose too much experience in the process I think we will be hurting educationally for several years until the novices gain the experience they need."

Laying off teachers is also an option if it comes to it, Drake said.

The teaching staff could be cut by eliminating classes from the curriculum that are not required by the state and by reducing the number of available classes per course, he said.

The school board is also considering a “pay to play” activity fee. The finance committee analyzed costs for students to participate in individual sports during April’s committee meeting.

Drake said raising taxes is the final option, when the district has pursued all methods to reduce the cost.

“I want to make sure we’ve done everything we can to get our school to a lean and efficient organization,” he said.

With that, Drake said the district is not in that position where it needs, or plans, to raise taxes.

“Personally, I don’t think we’re there, yet.”

There will be a voting meeting for a preliminary budget May 24.