Schools

School Budget Cuts Offer Slight Tax Decrease While Maintaining Standards, Officials Say

Superintendent says cuts will not affect programs or staff

The made to the 2011-12 school budget Monday night by the Manchester Township Council will result in a tax payment of $47.39 per year — based on the average home value of $194,000 — a decrease of $6.43 from the originally proposed rate, while also maintaining the district's programs and staff, officials said.

The reduction in the budget's tax levy from $40,797,161 to $40,662,161 translates to a tax rate decrease from the failed budget's 2.7 cents to 2.4 cents per $100 of assessed value, according to the school's business administrator Craig Lorentzen. 

Even with the cuts, Superintendent of Schools David Trethaway said that the board of education is "in full support" of the agreement with the council.

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"The administration certainly can support those cuts and we can make sure that all of our programs for students and staff are maintained," he said. "Any cuts are going to hurt anybody. Some people think it should be more, others think it should be less. But I think it's something we can both agree to."

Five items were cut from the $50 million budget, including a $11,500 reduction in funding for school trips, a $30,000 reduction of tuition for students attending Regional Day School, a $37,000 reduction for a disabled student who has left the district, an $8,500 decrease in funding for Central Services supplies, and a $48,000 savings in salary for a retiring middle school teacher who will not be replaced next year.

Find out what's happening in Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A consultant hired by the town council that $331,238 could be cut from the tax levy, but school administrators said that most of those reductions could not be made.

"We were not able to make any of those cuts except the $8,500," reduction in supply costs, Trethaway said. 

"Although I might not have agreed with the outside consultant, I want to thank you for how you handled that," he told the council. "You gave us ample time to look at his recommendations for cuts. We were able to come up with our responses to those, and that was all aired in public."

The council's cuts, according to Lorentzen, will keep staff, programs and after school activities intact.

"That was our goal," he said. "We would have liked it to have been nothing, but we also understand the position the council is in. When we were able to [reach an agreement] without really affecting staff and programs, we were more comfortable with it."

The district was already operating with $1.9 million less than it did two years ago due to recent aid cuts. 

"It makes our budget next year a little bit tighter," Lorentzen said. "We're still trying to recover from cuts two years ago."

Council president Craig Wallis said following the meeting that "there are no winners here."

"I think the schools lose. Some of the voters who voted 'no' lose," he said. "Hopefully we found the middle ground."

Wallis said that he understands the school district faces challenges after years of reductions in state aid and commended administrators for what he called "a very good budget."

"I don't see the waste," he said.

Coming in to negotiations with school administrators, Wallis said that he did not have a set amount by which he wanted to reduce the budget.

"The responsibility is to review the budget and see if there are things that can be cut," he said. "I never had a magic number in my mind. I could have been just as fine with no cuts, because it's an honest budget."

Trethaway thanked the council for "the way that they handled this process," which came after members of the school board and town council held both public and private meetings to find areas where cuts could be made without impacting educational standards.

"Having a public meeting benefits everybody. You had a chance to express your opinions, we had a chance to express our opinions. The public had a chance," he said. "Any time you open it up to the public, that's a positive thing."

The superintendent said that administrators sometimes became emotional during meetings and offered an apology if any council members were offended.

"We're not battling for surplus money," Trethaway said. "We're battling for programs, so we're really passionate."

This is the third year in a row that the in Manchester, and Wallis said that next year may be no different.

"I think that we're going to be faced with the same thing every year," he said.

The board of education will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at Ridgeway Elementary School to approve the budget.


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