School Board Approves Proposed $120 Million Budget

The East Penn Board of School Directors approved last night by an 8 – 1 vote a proposed 2011-2012 budget presented to them by East Penn Superintendent Thomas Seidenberger and his team.

The $120 million budget, which could undergo minor changes between now and final approval in June, includes a 2.7 percent tax increase and maintains the district’s budgetary reserve at its current level of $5.4 million.

In setting the stage for the budget presentation, Seidenberger detailed the history of the budget process over the past several months, and offered his hope for the future of East Penn.

“I think the district is still going to progress and do some wonderful things, even in these tough economic times,” he said.

Last night’s budget came in at about $2 million less than the preliminary budget presented to the board back in  that called for a 4.8 percent tax hike. 

Seidenberger spent some time explaining where that $2 million reduction came from. Among myriad other things, he highlighted the elimination of the JumpStart program, the evolution of driver’s education to a self-funded offering, a decrease in athletic department budgets and the fact that 12 professional positions that are not going to be filled. 

He also mentioned that teachers who had been performing other functions in the district -- such as conducting gifted program evaluations -- will be returning to the classroom. 

“There will be role changes,” he explained. “Our mantra next year is that teachers are going to teach kids.” 

Seidenberger singled out the offered by the faculty and administrators instrumental in streamlining the 2011-2012 budget. 

“The good news,” he said, “in this budget is that we are not laying anyone off and I am proud of that.” 

Following a detailed multi-part presentation delivered by Seidenberger, Debra A. Surdoval, business manager, and Lynn Glancy, director of operations, the board members almost universally went on the record thanking the superintendent for all of the hard work that was put into developing the budget, which all noted was no easy task. 

“I just want to say thank you,” said Elaine Gannon, board vice president. “You turned over every rock to find money and I want to thank you for your efforts. You certainly have brought in a very good budget.” 

Gannon went on to say that she would like to see a school budget with a tax increase of 2 percent or less, suggesting that the board might be able to get there by “shaving a little off the budgetary reserve,” a move which she said would likely be unpopular with some of her colleagues. 

Board member Rebecca Heid echoed Gannon’s praise for the budget as well as her desire to shrink the tax increase further, saying that it was time to “share the pain” and that she’d “be tickled pink if the budget came in at 1.9 percent,” pointing to the reserves as a way to get that done. 

In fact, the budgetary reserve was the only point of disagreement during last night’s meeting, with board members Alan Earnshaw, Terry Richwine, Samuel Rhodes III and Board President Charles Ballard advocating maintaining the reserve amid predictions of next year’s budget process being "much worse." 

After taking his turn in thanking everyone for their hard work on what was overall a good budget, Earnshaw pointed out that when all was said and done, the district is still spending $2.5 million more than it is taking in.

“I am adamantly opposed to reducing the financial reserves further,” he said. “I don’t think it would be prudent or fiscally responsible. I am all for sharing the pain…we are seeing that everywhere.” 

Richwine said: “It would be prudent to maintain the financial reserve at least at last year’s level. As much as I would also like to see the increase come down, because we were a pretty lean operation, the cuts weren’t easy to make. If the cuts were easy, that would mean we were overspending.” 

Rhodes, too, was free with his praise of the budget presentation and the efforts that got everyone to where they were last night. 

“I have never seen an effort like this to balance a school budget,” he said. “But, I sit with Richwine and Earnshaw on the reserve.  I fear that we are going to face this again next year. 

“I am angry with what the state is doing to us. They don’t want to raise income tax, they want us to raise property tax,“ he said. 

Ballard, long known as a supporter of the budgetary reserve, pointed out that East Penn’s policy of trying to keep the reserve to as close to 5 percent as possible helps with bond refinancing, which has “saved the district millions of dollars” through the years. 

Ballard also called the budget passed last night “historic,” as it marked the first time in the history of East Penn that the district managed to reduce the year-to-year expenditure in any amount. 

“That’s a tribute to the professional demeanor of this district,” he said.

Board member Julian Stolz was the sole nay vote on the budget.