Extracurricular Fees Panned, Tax Increase Rethought in State College

The State College Area school board panned Wednesday the idea of extracurricular-activity participant fees, and moved closer to a 2.65 percent tax increase.

Gathered for a special budget meeting, the board effectively nixed proposals that would charge students for extracurricular participation and almost immediately reduce funding for non-athletic extracurricular offerings.

A survey taken by more than 600 State College Area High School students found that 47 percent would limit their extracurricular involvement if a fee were imposed. Likewise, Acting Superintendent Michael Hardy formally recommended against the fee idea. He said a fee structure would ‘innately disadvantage students.’

It might be OK in a private-school environment — but not in public schools, Hardy said.

‘I think these (clubs and activities) are truly an extension of the classroom,’ he said.

Hardy also reiterated his support for ending in-car driver education in the school district — a move that would save the district just more than $200,000 a year, according to the district. The board preliminarily agreed last week to ending that in-car program and appeared to stick with that position Wednesday night.

‘I think it is time that this district get out of the driver-education-behind-the-wheel business,’ Hardy said. ‘i think it is a great thing that we offer students, but of all the things we must do — I don’t think it rises to that level.’

Board members also moved to ease up on a likely cut for the athletics budget, asking the department to create a proposal that incorporates $100,000 — rather than $200,000 — in cuts. They asked athletics Director Ron Pavlechko to concentrate those proposed cuts in interscholastic sports — particularly in the number of interscholastic contests — rather than in intramural sports. (A prior administration proposal would have eliminated intramural sports in the district, but that idea did not garner majority support on the school board.)

The cost-cut conversations are the latest steps in a months-long budgeting process for 2011-2012. District officials are trying to bridge a budget hole projected at several million dollars, caused in large part by an expected dip in state funding and an increase in fixed costs such as health care.

Tentatively, board members have already aired support for a variety of recommended attritional cuts, pay freezes, program trims and layoffs. The board is due to approve Monday a preliminary budget for 2011-2012. By late June, they will need to approve a final budget.

As of Wednesday evening, though, the district was still looking at a projected $872,000 budget gap. That gap remained even after the board gave the tentative OK to the attritional cuts, program trims and layoffs noted above.

Filling that remaining gap, business administrator Jeffrey Ammerman said, would require the district to go from a planned 1.4 percent tax increase to a 2.65 percent tax increase for 2011-2012.

A majority of board members said they would be OK with including a 2.65 percent tax increase in their preliminary budget, to be passed Monday. But many also expressed hope that ultimate tax-increase number could end up lower, especially if the state-funding outlook improves.

Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed state budget would cut $2.6 million from the State College schools’ revenue, but separate legislative proposals under consideration now would move that cut closer to $1.3 million.

‘In the final analysis, I hope we can do better’ and have a tax increase lower than 2.65 percent, State College board Vice President Jim Pawelczyk said.

Dorothea Stahl, another board member, said she would be comfortable with a 2.65 percent increase — ‘considering the alternative cuts and the (budgetary) exercises we already did.’

Board member David Hutchinson said he could ‘live with’ the 2.65 percent figure. But ‘if we cut everything we can this year … there will be no place to cut next year,’ when state-imposed tax-increase restrictions are likely to be more severe, he said.

‘We don’t (want to) shrink all at once and then have no place to go’ for future reductions, Hutchinson said.

But McGlaughlin and board member Richard Bartnik said they think the 2.65 percent number is too high. Bartnik said he doesn’t want the board to ‘kick the can down the road’ and not tackle the full extent of cuts it should make this year.

Similarly, McGlaughlin said that ‘I’m not willing to just stop the process of trying to right-size our budget.’

Board members also heard from several parties — including parents, faculty members and a student — concerned about a planned cut in the art-department budget. A key effect of the reduction would reorient a coordinator position more toward teaching, a change that program supporters said would substantially harm art education in the district.

The board also heard a proposal from in-car driver-education teacher Brad Fisher — a proposal that would retain that program in an altered fashion.

The next board meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday, will be held in the district administration building, 131 W. Nittany Ave., and will be open to the public. It also will be carried live on CETV, a C-NET channel that appears on Channel 98 on local cable systems.

Earlier coverage

• State College Job-Cut Ideas Get Mixed Response from School Board (May 10, 2011)

• State College Committee Resigns over Expected School Job Cut (May 13, 2011)