Neshaminy School District Budget Woes May Affect Jobs

In an effort to be transparent, Neshaminy School District Superintendent Louis Muenker presented the district’s current budget challenges and possible cost-saving measures at Tuesday’s board meeting.

“We have a Herculean challenge in front of us,” Muenker said of the proposed 2011-12 budget that has an $11.3 million deficit.

Muenker said that the district saw additional and “unexpected” state funding losses from Gov. Tom Corbett’s state budget. The district will see about a $621,000 reduction in Social Security reimbursements, a loss of $543,568 in basic education funding and a $480,000 loss in charter schools subsidy. Overall, the district is losing $1.6 million in state funding. The district will be receiving about $26,000 in special education funding from the state.

“Let’s just make it clear, our governor pulled $2 million out of our pocket,” board President Ritchie Webb said of the state budget cuts to education.

Prior to detailing potential cuts, Muenker told the public that “this is a beginning” and that just as they do in every budget year, budget conversations will continue into the spring until there is a “reasonable” budget to put forth for the school board to vote on.

The first set of potential cuts consisted of eliminating capital improvement projects to various district facilities that would save approximately $1.8 million. The projects include the installation of a kindergarten playground at Joseph Ferderbar Elementary School, sidewalk repair at Oliver Heckman Elementary School, renovations to the Poquessing Middle School library and auditorium and the replacement of sinks and faucets across the district.

Muenker said that he asked that all administrative departments to cut their expenditures for next year.

Then, in what Muenker said are the more “difficult conversations,” he discussed staffing cuts. Following anticipated retirements, the director of financial services and building administration positions could be eliminated. Also due to a retirement, the director of transportation position could not be filled, and those duties would be reassigned to the facilities director. Also, a new-hire human relations director position could be eliminated.

The possible elimination and reassignment of those positions would save the district about $467,000. However, Muenker proposed more staffing cuts. He said that there are about 22 professional staff members retiring and seven of those positions could not be replaced for a saving of $640,000. The additional 15 positions would be filled with new hires, Muenker said.

The additional proposed staff reductions include the elimination of tenth grade physical education, middle school foreign language at the eighth grade level, reduction in high school science, reduction in music and high school technology education, elimination of a social worker, reduce seven special education teachers district wide, reduce three day time custodians, elimination of a mechanic due to retirement, and eliminate five part-time instructional assistants.  There are two secretarial positions that could not be replaced.

Muenker also proposed various program cuts, including the elimination of middle school and high school intramural activities, high school clubs, reducing summer work to prepare schools for the first day of school and postponing or eliminating capital purchases such as white boards.

In addition, Muenker said that he asked every building principal to take a 10 percent reduction from their building allocations that are typically used for textbooks and supplies. He also said that expenditures for the special education program were cut by 10 percent.

All of the possible cuts Muenker presented would save the district a total of $4.6 million.

Some possible revenue sources Muenker suggested consist of a $10 parking fee increase for the high school, activity fees for secondary schools’ extra co-curricular participation and a one-time $25 fee for students taking music lessons.

“We’re trying to think outside of the box to get to a better place fiscally and move forward,” Muenker said.

Despite the proposed cuts and revenue sources, Muenker said that the district still has a “journey of $6.4 million” and that the Act I index and current budgetary reserves are going to be looked at.

“This is just the beginning. Obviously, there will be more of this,” Webb said following the presentation.

The presentation of potential cuts Muenker presented is available for review on the district’s website.