Unionville-Chadds Ford School
Board directors will be voting on a preliminary budget for the 2011-2012 school
year when they meet in February. Keith Knauss, the director who chairs the
finance committee, said the preliminary plan includes a proposed tax hike, but
that it will be within the limits of Act 1.
The preliminary budget is
currently posted on the school district’s Web site as a PDF file under the
finance committee documents, but Knauss said it would also be made available as
stand-alone document. It reflects revenue from all sources— local, state,
federal and unassigned fund balances—at $74.6 million and anticipated expenses
at $71.4 million.
Those numbers are subject to
change. Directors will vote on a final budget later this spring.
The state’s Act 1 limit allows
for school districts to increase taxes by 1.4 percent, with additional
exceptions, without the need for a referendum. Knauss said the proposal falls
within those parameters, including the exceptions, but that he will fight
against the exceptions when it comes to a vote.
He said those exceptions would
raise tax rates for Chester County residents in the district by 3.3 percent,
and for Delaware County residents (Chadds Ford Township) by 7.06 percent.
As part of his finance
committee report during the Jan. 10 workshop, Knauss added that the
negotiations committee would have an agenda item regarding contract
negotiations with the teachers’ association when the board meets on Jan. 18 at
Chadds Ford Elementary School.
Another issue affecting the
budget process is the proposed change in participation fees for students in the
district.
Jeff Leiser, who heads the
communications committee, said he prefers the board include the proposed change
in fees in the budget, but without voting on the individual fee changes themselves.
Discussions around the table showed a general agreement with Leiser.
John Sanville, the director of
secondary education, presented the proposed changes that include a four-tiered
rate of $75, $50, $25 and $10. The proposal also includes a cap of $200 per
student regardless of how many activities in which he or she participates.
Sanville said the rates keep
student costs to no more than 20 percent of the actual cost. As an example, he
said the cost to the district per student for wrestling is $887, but the
participation fee of $75 is only 8 percent of that total cost.
The idea, Sanville said, was to
increase total fees to $131,000—an increase of $50,000—without decreasing
student participation.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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