May 18, 2011

How much remains anybody’s
guess, but two state legislators said school districts will be getting more
money from the state this year, despite losing the $1.1 billion stimulus money.

“There will be additional
funding provided for K through 12 education for public school districts over
and above what the governor had proposed on March 8. The only question is how
much more,” said State Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-9, of Chester.

He added that he’s aiming to
have the budget finished on time this year.

“My goal is to have the budget
done in the second week of June,” Pileggi said. “We don’t want to get near the
June 30 deadline. It might take a few extra days and move into the third week
of June, but we’re well on track to achieve that goal.”

Pileggi made the comment during
his May 12 Senior Expo in Kennett Square. Five days later, state Rep. Stephen
Barrar, R-160, of Boothwyn, made the same type of comment at the polls in
Chadds Ford during the primary election.

“We will vote a budget probably
[May 24], an amended budget that [Gov. Tom] Corbett introduced. What we’re
doing is taking savings, what we feel are wasted programs in welfare and
addressing some of the fraud issues of revenue and welfare, and taking that
money and putting back into education,” Barrar said.

Some of the money will go for
the Social Security reimbursement for teachers and increasing the basic
education subsidy.

“Also, we found $100 million to
put back into the opportunity grants that the school districts have used very
effectively to promote tutoring, full day kindergarten and those types of
programs.”

Barrar said the state would
make up “very little” of the $1.1 billion it’s not getting from the federal
government this year. He also said it was up to the individual school districts
to watch their spending because they knew the stimulus money would not be forthcoming
again.

“The school districts all knew
that that money was a temporary source of funding. It was a two-year gift from
the federal government. …We cautioned the school districts two years ago that
that money was not going to be there. Most of the school districts in the state
have accumulated a sizeable reserve fund and I’m kind of taken aback that none
of them have proposed touching their reserve fund,” Barrar said.

The Garnet Valley School
District has an $8 million reserve fund, according to Barrar, and
Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board President Timotha Trigg confirmed that U-CF
has a reserve of roughly $3.5 million, 5 percent of the district’s $70 million
budget.

Secretary of the Commonwealth
Carol Aichele, speaking at a Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce
luncheon, agreed with much of what Barrar said.

“School districts receiving
that stimulus money would have been wiser if they had spent it on one-time
expenses rather than building it into their bottom line.

Those one-time expenses include
such things as paying down a debt or funding a building project or anything
that is not a recurring expense such as salary. Many of the 501 districts did
just that, Aichele said.

She added that since 80 percent
of a district’s budget goes toward salaries and benefits, that collective
bargaining agreements need to be addressed so that the districts can adapt
better to a changing economy.

“Pennsylvania residents are
willing to pay for good education in this state, [but] they want
accountability. Part of the process is to see that students get the kind of
instruction they need to demonstrate proficiency in their adult years. That’s
why I go back to the idea of management for results. School districts need to
define the results they want for their students, and then manage and budget to
achieve those results,” said Aichele, a former school director in the
Tredyffrin-Easttown district.

She added that the teachers
pension fund, PSERS, would be a problem for the districts now that the state is
backing out and putting the burden on the districts.

“It was over my wild-eyed
objections that the state legislature passed that pension bill in 2001,” she
said. “I predicted at that time that they would not be able to fund it and that
the dollars that would be available for the pension fund would not be able to
fund the obligation.”

Aichele added that the
districts and the teachers unions knew this was coming because they read the
legislation when it was passed.

“The issue is that when
governments make pension promises, they often do it when the market is very
strong, with no expectation that the market will go down…It’s not wise to make
promises during the good times because, surely, the bad times will follow,”
said Aichele.

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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Vote totals updated below: Update 1.

A last-minute write-in campaign in the primary may have insured there will be Democrats on the ballot for Region C of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board election in November.

Democrats had no one on the ballot, but began the write-in campaign for Gregg Lindner and Kathy Do 10 days before the May 17 primary.

Republicans Timotha Trigg, Sharon Jones and Frank Murphy were on both the Republican and Democratic Party primary ballots. Voters from either party could also vote for Lindner and Do as write-ins.

Region C is comprised of Chadds Ford and Pennsbury townships. Initial results show Chadds Ford Democrats giving Lindner and Do 119 votes while the pair received 363 votes in Pennsbury. The two also garnered 36 votes from Chadds Ford Republicans and 96 votes from the Pennsbury GOP.

On the Republican side, Murphy led the voting with 362 votes. Jones received 355 votes and Trigg 342.

Vote tallies are unofficial until verified, as is usually the case, but this year the counties must figure out the totals for each of the two write-candidates as well. It generally takes about a week for the votes to be verified.

Lindner, of Chadds Ford Township, had been an interim director for the latter part of 2009, but was defeated in a special election that year by Murphy. The Democrat said the write-in campaign was spurred by the resignation of U-CF superintendent.

“Things that were going on in the district with Sharon Parker retiring as superintendent with votes that had recently been taken around the funding of the school, it called a number of us to think about what it is that needed to be done. We felt the only way to express ourselves was to have a write-in campaign,” Lindner said.

He called Parker an “exemplary superintendent…When she leaves it should be a wake up call that there’s something about the district that people need to pay attention to.”

Lindner said votes by the current board led to a spiraling of how money was spent. The board, he said, has not raised taxes enough by not adding the Act 1-allowable exceptions to the budget, and that board members now are focused on cutting spending instead of finding alternative ways of raising revenue. He wants to look at naming rights for the sports stadium and for the libraries and auditoriums.

Jones, a Chester County internal audit manager and Republican committee woman in Pennsbury, said she chose to run because she has a lot at stake in the school board because she has two children attending school in the district.

“I’m looking to keep the high integrity of the education, but to also keep it fiscally sound,” Jones said. “One of my interests is to try to generate revenues outside of just taxing the individuals…I think there should be other opportunities where we could possibly generate money at the foundation level, maybe have an annual giving, sponsorships, maybe approach some of our corporate sponsors and use that money to enhance our school programs and take the burden off taxes.”

Jones is replacing Paul Price on the Republican ticket. Price decided to serve only one term on the board.

Update 1: According to Chester County Voter Services, Do received 191 votes in Pennsbury Township. Gregg Lindner received 162.

The Delaware County Department of Elections said it will not have the write-in votes available until two weeks after the election.

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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Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board directors
are in the final stages of evaluating the economic benefits of outsourcing the
bus transportation. The directors
will vote once their final review is complete the school board directors
assured transportation department employees.

According to Director Holly Manzone, “We are
playing with people’s careers. The
employees need to know as soon as possible if they will still have their jobs.”

Manzone’s remarks were made after the
conclusion of Robert Cochran, business manager and Sharon Allen-Spann, director
of personnel and pupil services made a presentation of the district’s evaluation
of five outsourcing bids on transportation during the May 16 board meeting. A
copy of the presentation is posted on the UCFSD Web page http://www.ucfsd.org/trans2011.html.

Evaluation of the bids determined only one
bid—First Student—would generate savings. During a five-year period, the projected savings would
provide average annual savings of $143,641 plus a one-time cash payment
$1,717,553 generated by selling district buses to the outside contractor.

Although there was no final vote, comments
from board members seemed to support maintaining in-house control of bus
transportation.

“The Board undertook the transportation evaluation as part of
its fiduciary duty to the taxpayer’s,” Keith Knauss said. “The study was
thorough, unbiased and fair. Current in-house cost of providing bus
transportation beat 4 of 5 outsourcing bids. Our transportation employees are
well regarded. I believe I will support
retaining bus transportation. The
school board plate is full. We
have to fill the Superintendent position, complete the teacher contract
negotiations and oversee the high school construction project. If in three to
five years the in-house PSERS and FICA costs are too large, we may need to
reconsider outsourcing.”

Knauss also said the one-time $1.7 million
cash payment for selling the bus fleet to a private contractor should not be a
significant factor in deciding to retain or outsource bus transportation.

Paul Price adamantly supported outsourcing
bus transportation services now.

Reading from a prepared document, Price said,
“There are three very important considerations that need to be thought out
regarding this issue.

“Pennsylvania has already shown its
inclination to cut back on FICA reimbursements in the current budget
proposal. While this may be
reversed partially or totally for this year, it is likely to be a target in
future state budgets – particularly for ‘rich’ districts like UCFD

“While Pennsylvania currently reimburses us
50 percent of our PSERS contributions this also is not guaranteed to continue.
We should be prudently planning for the possibility that this may be reduced or
eliminated in future years.

“The recently passed HB2497 set PSERS
contribution rates that are going to ramp up dramatically…The 5-year period
illustrated in our transportation analysis [Cochran’s May 16 presentation] cover
an average PSERS contribution of 16.88 percent [years 2012 – 2016]. The average annual contribution
[set by recently passed HB2497] for the next five year period [2017 – 2021]
will be 26.602 percent— an increase of 60 percent from the 2012 – 2012
outsourcing proposal [Cochran presentation.”

Price also said, “We have been agonizing over
budget cuts that total a fraction of the savings we’re looking at by making
this change. While having in-house
transportation services is preferable is it worth cutting professional staff,
programs and facilities that could otherwise be kept intact?

Cochran commented the in-house bus
transportation employees are also offering further cost savings proposals that
may save the school district $200,000 next year. Details of the possible additional in-house cost savings
were not detailed at meeting; however Cochran assured the board directors the
additional savings proposal was firm.

The nine school board directors agreed to
expedite their final analysis and any additional questions so a date could be
set in the very near future to set a date for a public meeting for the
directors to cast their votes on the outsourcing of bus transportation.

About Jim Phreaner

After 41 years of auditing large NYSE global corporations, former IRS Agent Jim Phreaner was looking for a project in retirement with fewer regulations and more people. He joined the staff at Chadds Ford Live more than a year ago. James Edward “Jim” Phreaner, 64, died suddenly in his Birmingham Township home on Dec.17, 2012. Jim was a devoted husband, son, father, friend, and neighbor.

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Unionville-Chadds Ford School District
Superintendent Sharon Parker’s May 15, 2011 letter to UCF families posted on
the school district Web page at http://www.ucfsd.org/pdf/superintendents_msg_051511
and the May 16 school board meeting put to rest the concerns of many UCF
families regarding possible reconfiguration of the district’s four elementary
schools.

Parker said, “The internal study of
current elementary school building utilization was undertaken to meet emerging
state and federal government mandates regarding fiscal responsibility. There has been no recommendation
to the school board to take any action on the internal elementary school
building utilization.”

The May 16 school board meeting was a
forum for many public comments from district residents opposing change to the
elementary grade configuration. The concerned parents attended the session in
response to widely circulated parent emails inaccurately reporting comments
made by school board directors at the April board meeting.

Board President Timotha Trigg said, “The
April Board Meeting discussion of the internal report of the elementary school
grade configuration was in response to the board’s view of the sunshine act. Any
matter like this grade configuration report provided to the school board should
be discussed with the public. There was never any proposal before the board to
take any action on the report. The school board strives to be transparent. ”

Parker also said that “Studies like the
elementary school building grade utilization are a response to parent concern
about the varying number of students in a particular grade at different UCFSD
elementary schools. School district grade population imbalances occur from year
to year. Currently the number of
third-grade students per class at Chadds Ford Elementary are less than
Hillendale Elementary.”

School Board Vice President Frank Murphy
said, “I assure you the board never had any formal proposal for voting to
reconfigure the elementary schools.”

About Jim Phreaner

After 41 years of auditing large NYSE global corporations, former IRS Agent Jim Phreaner was looking for a project in retirement with fewer regulations and more people. He joined the staff at Chadds Ford Live more than a year ago. James Edward “Jim” Phreaner, 64, died suddenly in his Birmingham Township home on Dec.17, 2012. Jim was a devoted husband, son, father, friend, and neighbor.

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