COAL TOWNSHIP - School board directors discussed ideas to save Shamokin Area significant money without cutting jobs Tuesday, and some voted to implement one action immediately - refusing to waive facility rental fees.
Other ideas included starting a budget from scratch, eliminating five administrative positions and asking district personnel to renegotiate salaries.
On separate 3-6 votes, the board refused requests by the PTSA and wrestling boosters to waive a pair of $400 facility fees for upcoming events.
The money is minor in the grand scheme of the budget, but the idea is a telling sign of the directors' daunting task of balancing a budget despite a deficit estimated at $4.6 million - a deficit that comes after more than $1 million in supplies and equipment was already axed ahead of the 2012-13 school year.
It's long been practice at Shamokin Area and other area school districts to waive facility fees for booster organizations and the like. Those days appear to be at an end.
Directors LaRue Beck, Ron McElwee, Brian Persing, Charles Shuey, Bernie Sosnoskie and Tracey Witmer all voted against the waiver requests. Directors Robert Getchey, Edward Griffiths, Jeffrey Kashner voted in favor, however, Getchey said that come July 1 - start of the next school year - that all organizations should pay facility rental fees.
"We've been waiving fees for a long time. I propose in July that everyone pays a fee," Getchey said. "We have to do it. We have jobs at stake."
Getchey said the district could also consider doubling some of the fees.
"It stinks, it's unfortunate, but it is what it is," McElwee said of charging the fees.
Griffiths said he was uncomfortable with asking booster clubs to pay the fees since the money is raised in support of district students. He noted that among the cost-savings ideas introduced by board members that Witmer asked that booster clubs help provide even more support.
In making that request, Witmer seemed reluctant and noted how much the boosters already provide, saying that it would be tough to ask but that it would also prove very helpful.
Ideas
Last month, Persing challenged his fellow board members to each bring five ideas to Tuesday's board meeting - proposals to slash the deficit without cutting jobs.
Among his initiatives are seeking solicitations from alumni and encouraging some staff or administrators to take administrator jobs at Northwestern Academy if the district takes over the facility's special education program. He is also pushing for some long-tenured staff to retire early and to cut the district's $1 million contribution toward the Northumberland County Career and Technology Center budget by up to $400,000 because of low attendance at the center.
He said he's already secured $2,000 annually in a perpetual pledge from a local businessman and that the district's bussing contractor, Marvin E. Klinger Inc., agreed to trim $100,000 from its $1.2 million contract. Another $36,000 is accounted for when seven employees took $3,000 each to withdraw from the district's health insurance plan, an offer more employees may choose to accept.
At a minimum, he said the district could save $182,000 initially through his ideas, with savings growing if more of his ideas develop.
Cut from top
Shuey said there are 12 administrators in the district, calling that number "top heavy."
He proposed completely eliminating a pair of administrative positions along with a school nurse position, as well as reconfigure three others to non-administrative positions. The savings, he said, would exceed $318,800.
Shuey proposed eliminating the positions of curriculum coordinator, athletic director and a school nurse - the former two positions are currently held by Ruby Michetti and Rick Kashner - a move he said would save $266,938 in salary and benefits.
By reconfiguring the positions of special education coordinator, maintenance supervisor and technology coordinator - held by Sherry Glosek, Dave Petrovich and Tim Latshaw, respectively - the district would save $51,885.
He said the district should also consider no longer outsourcing certain educational programs.
Witmer said she is piggy-backing Shuey's ideas, saying they've discussed them at length. Without being specific, she agreed with other members' ideas as well.
"We need to go straight from the top and go down," she said of potential staffing cuts.
She also recommended seeking a buyer for the district's high-powered telescope and seeking volunteers to accept furloughs.
Agree to pay cut
Getchey said the board could consider asking all employees, from top to bottom, to take a pay cut to help the district. He also proposed instituting paid parking for employees and installing a windmill on district property to generate electricity that could be sold back to PPL Electric.
He said in an attempt to avoid cuts to educational programs, the district should trim its sports programs. There has been a 20 percent decrease in allocations for sports already in the proposed budget.
McElwee, who is involved with Persing in the plan to offer early retirement, seemed to agree with Getchey on salaries.
Administrators are considering renegotiating their salaries, he said, and union employees should do the same.
"If attitude should reflect leadership and administrators are on board" with renegotiating, McElwee said, "I think unions should be open to it too."
He stuck to a prior proposal to eliminate the district's budget and start over from scratch, beginning with funding the core subjects from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and then addressing extracurricular activities, deciding with a fresh look where to spend and where to skimp.
Sosnoskie did not speak publicly of his plans but did say he submitted some in writing to Witmer, the board president.
Griffiths proposed slashing weekend events and reviewing mileage reimbursements, possibly purchasing a vehicle for district employees to use versus paying mileage. He also said the district and union could look at going to a four-day work week during the summer months.
Kashner said the board should seek input from district staff and the public as to where cuts could be made, saying those with "boots on the ground" could have good ideas on where savings could be realized.
Beck, who has been ill, has not been at any recent meetings with board members to discuss cost savings. However, a graduate of the Class of 1946 and a board member for decades, she said she is fully aware of the goings-on in the district. Any district employee or member of the public who has ideas for savings simply can call her to discuss them.