COAL TOWNSHIP - The Shamokin Area School Board voted Tuesday to operate at four days a week this summer in a move to cut costs and save energy.
Summer school, free lunch and "Jump Start" will all operate Monday through Thursday, and buildings will be closed Fridays.
The move came on the night the board adopted a tentative $30.3 million budget, authorizing the district solicitor to draw up a contract to take over special education services at Northwestern Academy and pare down administrative salaries and benefits under Act 93.
The budget will bring about a 0.6695-mill increase in property taxes, the highest allowable under the taxpayer relief act.
That increase will generate approximately $63,920 revenue. It will be the district's first tax hike in 20 years.
The current property tax millage rate is 25.75.
Real estate taxes are levied against a property's fully assessed value. Each mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of the assessment.
A property within Shamokin Area assessed at $20,000 would be taxed $515 under the current rate and $528.39 under the proposed rate for the 2012-13 school year.
A final budget is due June 30 and must be balanced, meaning school board directors have a little more than six weeks to erase the remaining $2 million deficit.
The deficit had topped $5.6 million last fall and led to the furlough of 21 staff members and reductions in spending on books and equipment, transportation and the position of school resource officer.
Spending on athletics, too, was recommended to be pared down.
Union head to retire
Additional savings could be had through more retirements of teachers and non-professional staff - all of whom have been offered incentives - in the hope of reducing the deficit and avoiding further furloughs.
The board approved on Tuesday the retirement of nine professional employees who took the incentives.
Samuel Schiccatano, president of the teachers union, will retire, telling The News-Item on Wednesday that given the previous furloughs and the continued uncertainties, he opted to walk away from a job he loves.
"I don't think it's fair for me to continue with everybody getting furloughed," he said.
The teachers union is expected to vote on potential concessions as early as Tuesday. They met Thursday to discuss the ramifications of a wage freeze and loss of tuition reimbursements.
Non-professional staff in a separate union could also vote on the district's request that it forego scheduled raises.
Contracts with both unions expire at the end of next school year.
Act 93 revisions
District administration agreed to some concessions. They were approved in a memorandum of understanding on a split vote by school board directors Tuesday night.
Some directors felt "it's a start." Others believe it's not enough, and so did many in Tuesday's audience of more than 100 people.
The agreement would terminate a planned 5-percent wage increase, call for contributions of 1 percent of annual salary to be made toward health benefits and reduce an annual health stipend from $4,000 to $1,500 for all 12 of the district's administrators.
A majority of the savings, however, are a result of attrition with the demotion Ruby Michetti, curriculum coordinator, and retirement of Tim Latsha, technology coordinator.
Michetti has challenged the demotion to an English teaching assignment.
It was estimated Tuesday that the concessions would yield a savings of $260,000 next school year.
The concessions are good only for the 2012-13 school year. If the school board and district administration don't reach a similar agreement before May 1, 2013, the original contract terms must be met.
Also, with the memorandum, it extends the life of Act 93 by two additional years, from 2016 to 2018, and calls for 3 percent raises in each of those years.