18 Staff Cuts Proposed for Easton Area Schools
More layoffs are being considered by Easton Area School Board as a way to reduce school budget deficit. District cut 135 jobs last year.
After a tough 2012, the Easton Area School Board is facing deficits this year, and next year. And that could mean more layoffs after 135 jobs were lost last year.
For the past few years, budget season in the Easton Area School District has meant the threat of cuts to staff and programs.
And that's the case again this year, where the district could trim 18 positions either through attrition or staff cuts.
“It’s March on the calendar, but I’d say the theme of this is Groundhog Day," board member Robert Moskaitis said at Tuesday night's board meeting.
He was referring not to the holiday, but to the 20-year-old Bill Murray comedy about a weatherman repeating the same day over and over again. Easton, he said, seems to be stuck in the same sort of cycle: a $4.2 million deficit this year, another one in 2014.
But this year's deficit could shrink by $3.1 million due to cuts to programs and staff suggested by Chief Operation Officer Michael Simonetta, which include:
- $1.8 million from cutting 18 administrative and professional support positions, which haven't yet been identified.
- $155,000 from cuts to the extra pay for extra duty/late bus run programs.
- $600,000 from the sale of the old Cottingham School, and an unexpected bump in state aid.
Simonetta said he will also meet Wednesday with the director of the Easton Area Public Library to talk about cuts to its funding.
Board member Pat Vulcano Jr. asked him to go easy.
"They're not lavished with money," he said.
Neither are a lot of residents, say other board members, who didn't seem in a hurry to embrace the 2.1 percent tax increase that would be needed to fill the remaining $1.1 million budget gap.
"This budget situation remains grim," said Moskaitis. "I wouldn’t presume you’re going to have every board member approve a 2.1 percent increase."
Under a 2.1 percent increase, the owner of a property with an assessed value of $50,000 would pay $68 more a year in school taxes.
The board could approve a smaller increase, but that would mean more cuts to district expenses.
Jena Brodhead, who leads the teachers union, said she was glad the district wasn't planning on "decimating" any programs, and asked the board for transparency as it moves forward.
She added that the damage from previous cuts is still evident at district schools.
"We're not doing more with less, we're doing less with less," Brodhead told the board.
Last year, the district cut 135 jobs. A deal between teachers and the district in 2011 avoided the same outcome.
Rasterone
12:50 pm on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
I'm surprised isn't more like 50 cuts among teachers and administrators and it truly will be less education for a good many students --a death of a thousand small cuts.
Of course students protected by an IEP or 504 plan are entitled to a cost is no object delivery of everything they need even if others go starving. When are we going to stop this well intentioned stuff which has run amuck--its nationwide likely to bankrupt education!
And homeowners throughout the district will get yet another dose of more taxes (likely to push some over the cliff as can they afford to stay in Easton) all the while an increasing cadre of residential landlords put in less and less . Tax reform long overdue to get landlords putting in far more?
Rasterone
5:00 pm on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
And keep in mind if your neighbor commutes to NY or telecommutes to NY the odds are your neighbor puts ZERO in the local wage tax pot for schools or anything else and ZERO in the PA income tax pot on all his or her hefty NY wages --so guess who has to honor to pay more? Need you ask?
Armed Citizen
9:59 pm on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Rasterone, you are wrong! Your neighbor who commutes to NJ or NY also pays the EIT and PA state tax.
Rasterone
8:15 am on Thursday, March 14, 2013
Not so fast --you are correct as to NJ commuters but I wrote NY and those commuters do not pay the Easton EIT and PA Income Taxes --so that means you and I must pick up that slack and pay MORE..
WestEastonPA
11:18 am on Thursday, March 14, 2013
Anyone ever ask how much could be saved if the administration (eg., superintendent, principals, asst. principals, dept. heads, etc.) took a 10% pay cut? Overpaid and often given guaranteed pay raises for getting a higher degree of learning. And how about the $140K approved by all the school districts (Easton among them) to install a "big brother" gps system on CIU 20 school buses. Called, Zonar, it has proven itself to be flawed and not worth the expense. Approved at a time when no school district can afford to purchase luxury items.
AmysMom
5:21 pm on Thursday, March 14, 2013
I'm with you WestEaston. Where I work, All the employees are had to pay more For their benefits, Pay more towards their pensions, and We haven't had a raise in four years. Why should the administrators and teachers be handed raises That said that they should've never been given in the first place because the school district couldn't afford it. Why should they get the Cadillac of benefits? It's a problem of spending, When you don't have the money you have to cut back that means everybody should cut back. The school board should've never approve these raises when they knew that they didn't have the money to be able to hand out those raises. There's a lot of excess things that are being purchased for this schools that don't need to be stop all those extra computers all the papers all the lavish parties. Also stop paying higher salaries for teachers to go back to school.
The Easton schoolboard could take a few lessons from Chris Christie the governor of New Jersey. Stop the bleeding, stop the spending, If the teachers Won't agree to any givebacks then implement furloughs.
Rasterone
9:40 pm on Thursday, March 14, 2013
The biggest problem is NOT the costs of labor but a two fold problem..major deterioration of the revenue base largely due to special treatment given landlords and major piling on of endless more things we expect schools to provide with a near absolute entitlement to a local education to anybody who claims a library seat as an address or 3d cousin John signs an " affidavit "
Rasterone
9:46 pm on Thursday, March 14, 2013
Of course it would be nice if the next superintendent is as close to an at will employee as the law permits and no goodies as in the current contract unless tied to serious performance goal attainment ....and anybody who takes the role w/o solid agreement that he or she can pick new directors and get rid of others is not smart enough for the role and or destined to fail, again.