From today's Courier Times . . .
The deficit would double if the district agrees to retroactive pay sought by the teachers union in its latest contract offer, according to the school board president.
Neshaminy School District faces an $11.2 million deficit, according to an outline of the 2011-12 proposed preliminary budget presented to the school board Tuesday. Board President Ritchie Webb said the proposal includes about $11.2 million more in expenditures than in revenues.
"The bottom line is that the projected expenditures are roughly $10 million above the current year's budget," he added during the board's work session.
Expenditures are projected to total about $166 million, according to Webb.
The board will reveal the entire proposed preliminary budget to the public Wednesday.
Webb said because it is so early in the process, it remains to be seen how the board will attempt to balance the budget.
"There are a lot of 'ifs' at the moment," he added. "We are not sure about how much we will get in reimbursements from the state."
Because of Act 1, which limits how much a school district can raise taxes each year, Webb said a lot of factors have to be projected far in advance so the actual bottom line is difficult to pinpoint.
"Last year, we balanced the budget by using roughly $2 million in federal stimulus money," he added. "Obviously that money is gone, so basically we are starting this year in the hole by $2 million. We are going to have to take a hard look at everything, including using some of our reserve funds."
The 2010-11 budget included a $7.3 million deficit.
According to Webb, the $11.2 million budget gap would balloon to more than $22 million if the district agreed to the retroactive pay sought by the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers in the union's latest contract offer.
"At this point in time, this makes agreeing to retro pay almost impossible," he added.
NFT President Louise Boyd declined to comment on this story Wednesday.
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3 comments:
Did the board offer another option for health care? One that would save money and not require the teachers to pay 17%?
The Board's original offer 3 years ago was for a reduced cost health care plan with contribution rates of 10%, 11%, 12%. The NFT insisted on maintaining the rolls royce plan, so the Board increased the contribution rate to 15%, 16%, 17% to offset the impact to the budget.
I appologize, what I meant to write was did the NFT offer an option that would save money?
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