The Unionville-Chadds
Ford School District has a budget for the next school year and district
residents face a tax increase to pay for the $69,675,794 spending plan. The
vote was 8-0, with Director Corinne Sweeney absent.

Chester County
residents will see a tax increase of 1.1 percent that will hike their school
property tax millage to 24.53 mills. Chadds Ford residents will see an increase
of 4.5 percent that brings their millage rate to 21.82 mills.

A mill is a tax
of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

Several School
Board directors commented how difficult it was to approve a school budget that cuts
jobs.

“The positions
eliminated were a result of the lack of money,” said Holly Manzone. “The staff
positions eliminated were people who were doing excellent work.”

Frank Murphy
also commented how difficult the decision was.

“The tax
increase reflects shared sacrifice,” said Murphy. “While I would have preferred
no tax increase, the increase allows for an efficient first rate school
district.”

Superintendent
Sharon Parker, who is retiring at the end of August, said the loss of many jobs
in the district was something new.

“Dismantling a
public education system in an affluent suburban school district was unheard of
in past years, but this is reality in today’s economic times. This is not an
impoverished large urban school district. I hope the new superintendent will
not have to deal with reductions in public education positions.”

The remarks
reflect numerous pay freezes for district employees as well as the loss of dozens
of professional and support jobs. Details of the eliminated jobs may be found
at the UCFSD webpage June 20 School Board Meeting Agenda Topic 7 Personnel http://www.ucfsd.org/~boarddocs/FOV1-00037F90/FOV1-00040E25/.

The final
budget tax increase is less than the Pennsylvania ACT 1 limit of 1.4
percent. Under the Taxpayer
Relief Act of 2006, Pennsylvania school districts can’t raise taxes above an
annually set, state-governed limit unless school officials applied for one of
10 state-allowed exceptions. The exceptions are designed to account for cost
increases beyond school district control, including employee pensions and
special education.

A preliminary
budget had a tax increase of 0.99 percent for Chester County, while several
members wanted to go to the full 1.4 percent.

Director Keith
Knauss said the 1.1 percent was a “good compromise.”

Other business

• Murphy
provided an update on the teacher contract negotiations, saying that while the
teachers have accepted the salary offer, there is still disagreement over the
proposed health plan and work rule changes offered by the district.

He added that
the teachers don’t want a face-to-face session next time.

“The school board
accepts the teacher’s union request that next week’s scheduled negotiations
take place in separate rooms with a facilitator relaying offers and counter
offers between the school board negotiators and the Unionville–Chadds Ford
Education Association negotiators. If that’s what it takes, that’s what we’ll
do,” he said.”

After the
meeting, UCFEA President Pat Clark declined to comment on why his people want
sessions in separate rooms except to say there are a “few things we need to
work out.”

• Board members
voted to authorize a marching band trip to New Orleans, La. for the BCS College
Football National Championship in January. They also agreed to offer in-house
drivers’ education instead of having it done by the Chester County Intermediate
Unit.

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Rich Schwartzman added content to this story.