Suburban school budgets look slightly better than last year's

Parents and taxpayers in the Pennsylvania suburbs are likely to find slightly better news in the newly passed 2012-13 school district budgets than in last year's.

The 2011-12 spending plans inflicted serious pain on many of the 63 districts in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties. Cuts hit classrooms hard, as a big drop in state aid and declining local tax revenue took their toll.

Taxes were raised, on average, 2.3 percent.

For the coming year, tax increases average 1.95 percent in the budgets that boards passed by the June 30 deadline.

Thirteen districts aren't raising taxes at all. Of the 50 that are, 29 passed increases that exceed the districts' state-set annual education inflation rates, typically 1.7 percent; in seven of those, taxes grew by at least twice that rate.

Budget bottom lines and classroom offerings continued to erode - the result of public pressure to tamp down taxes, lost revenue due to low local real estate values, and rising pension and special-education costs and salaries.

Still, budget tightening generally has not been as harrowing as in 2011-12.

Job cuts have slowed to a trickle after big reductions last year. However, almost all districts are eliminating at least a few positions, mostly through attrition.

Teachers and other employees in a few districts agreed to givebacks or wage freezes.

State funding is at about 2011-12 levels, not counting increased pension subsidies that do not directly affect students. Districts got somewhat more if the tally includes the pension payments.

Some districts used millions in savings to close revenue gaps. Some are banking on initiatives aimed at reducing health-care, transportation, and energy expenses.

Statewide, most districts are "treading water" - with no real improvement in their fiscal situations but no catastrophic cuts either, said Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.

There are some districts, however, where the budget process has produced "a lot of pain," Himes said.

Bucks County's Bristol Township is one of them. It is eliminating about 100 jobs and, to further save money, sending students who had been at a 9th Grade Academy in a separate building back to the high school. Even so, the board raised taxes 2.1 percent and used about $4.5 million in savings.

The district endured similar cuts last year.

"It's a blow," said Samuel Lee, Bristol Township superintendent. "Revenues are down and our expenses continue to increase. I'm worried that we are at the point of compromising the opportunities and options we can offer our kids."

The William Penn district has the second-highest school taxes in Delaware County and is among the poorest. The school board voted 5-4 not to raise taxes. Now, it must find or cut $750,000 to balance the budget.

Board member Robert Wright Sr. said he was "looking to serve both the taxpayers and the young people," but when he ran for office last year, "residents told me, "We cannot afford to pay any more' " in taxes.

William Penn made big cuts last year, leaving few places to make more, Superintendent Joseph Bruni said.

After double-digit increases the two previous years, Bucks County's tiny Bristol Borough district (enrollment about 1,250) is not raising its 2012-13 taxes. The trade-off: shrinking full-day kindergarten to half-day, and eliminating a couple of positions. The past increases were "not fair to the taxpayers," said Ralph DiGuiseppe 3d, Bristol Borough school board president. "People were pleading with us, saying they could not afford the taxes."

Still, he said, "there is no relief in sight. . . . We're in survival mode; this is no joke. Unless we get more help from the state, we could possibly not be here in the future."

Things are so grim in Delaware County's Chester Upland district that state financial oversight is likely, even if the settlement of court cases against the state erases much of its multimillion-dollar deficit.

Upper Darby, also in Delaware County, was spared from having to eliminate dozens of positions by a last-minute infusion of $2 million in state aid. That allowed it to retain all elementary-school art, music, and physical-education teachers and middle-school language and technology staff. Several librarians and administrators are losing their jobs, nonetheless.

Chester County's Coatesville Area district has axed its Air Force Junior ROTC program to save $157,000, despite getting $1 million in extra state aid. The district's education foundation is trying to privately fund the program. By last week, it had collected $47,000 and has until Aug. 12 to raise the rest.

Some prosperous districts are struggling as well. Chester County's Tredyffrin/Easttown is raising taxes by 3.3 percent, almost double the education inflation rate. Even so, it spent more than a million in reserves, increased class sizes, and imposed a student activity fee.

Budgets were eased in some districts by salary concessions or wage freezes.

Teachers in Bucks County's Centennial district agreed to a contract extension that spread two years of wage increases over four years, for a savings of more than $2 million in that period. The school board agreed to cap layoffs at about 20 a year for two years.

In Chester County's Great Valley, Bucks County's Council Rock, and Delaware County's Ridley and Springfield districts, teachers are forgoing wage increases in 2012-13.

Some districts are seeking new ways to lower costs. In Bucks and Montgomery Counties, 11 districts, three technical schools, and the Bucks Intermediate Unit formed a joint health-care consortium that projects about $5 million in 2012-13 savings, Bucks IU director Barry Galasso said.

The consortium has 9,000 members and plans to expand. District unions, he said, are cooperating in the effort.