SRC swears in new members, confronts shortfall
Joseph A. Dworetzky and David F. Girard-diCarlo were sworn in as the newest members of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission yesterday. As their first order of business, they learned that the School District is facing a $197 million funding gap.
Joseph A. Dworetzky and David F. Girard-diCarlo were sworn in as the newest members of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission yesterday. As their first order of business, they learned that the School District is facing a $197 million funding gap.
Each asked the district's chief business officer, Michael Masch, several questions about his proposal for dealing with it. His plan, outlined to the commission yesterday, includes a series of proposed trims that he said would balance the budget without scaling back academic reforms in the district's Imagine 2014 plan - or imposing layoffs.
In his first financial update since Gov. Rendell signed the 2009-10 state budget last week, Masch said the district would receive a 12.1 percent reduction in state funding - about $180 million - from what was anticipated when the commission passed its $3.2 billion budget in May. He told the commission last month to expect at least $160 million less.
In addition, Masch said, after five years of capped rate increases, the district is confronting a $16.8 million price increase in employee health insurance costs. The district budgeted a 10 percent increase, Masch said, but providers requested 16 percent.
"We are attempting to negotiate what we think are competitive and reasonable rates with our medical carriers," Masch said.
Other savings his plan includes are a 3 percent reduction in the central administration budget; a 3 percent cut in noninstructional spending; and a trim of just under 1 percent in the budgets for each of the more than 260 schools.
He said he would give the commission a more detailed amended budget next month.
Masch said after the meeting that his plan did not call for layoffs. "There are none that I'm aware of," he said.
He said it was possible that a manager might propose eliminating a position to meet the 3 percent cut in a departmental budget. But he said the district, which has 25,000 employees, would try to find vacant spots for affected staff.
Earlier, in ceremonies that attracted friends and family members, Mayor Nutter swore in Dworetzky and Girard-diCarlo as members of the unpaid commission.
Their arrival gives the commission its first full complement of five members since James Gallagher completed his term in January.
Dworetzky, a former city solicitor, who replaced Gallagher, promised to listen to all carefully.
"I will use my heart and my experience of working for many years to try to make good decisions and decisions that are centered on the most important thing, and that is the interests of the children in the Philadelphia School District," he said.
Girard-diCarlo, a lawyer and a former ambassador to Austria, takes the place of Heidi Ramirez, who stepped down last month. He called serving on the commission "an awesome assignment."
The lone Republican on the board, Girard-diCarlo said:
"I don't think there are Republican answers to the challenges we face, and I don't think there are Democratic answers. . . . We have to work in concert with one another to find the best solutions to those challenges."
Contact staff writer Martha Woodall at 215-854-2789 or martha.woodall@phillynews.com.
