 |
More Music. Fewer Interruptions. Just what you want to hear.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Talk about what's in the news
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
THE POST | News | Sports | Culture | Business | Free Forum
|
|
|
| |
| Philadelphia School District: $39 million in reductions needed |
|
|
| |
 by: Rebel - Havertown, PA
started: 10/27/11 12:27 pm | updated: 10/27/11 12:27 pm |
| |
Philadelphia School District - which had earlier announced a $629 million budget gap - must make an additional $39 million in reductions.
Cutting professional development, English-language learner instruction, psychologists, instrumental music, athletics, educational technology, and bilingual counseling assistants would save about $17 million. The district still has to find $22 million more to cut.
Without further concessions from district unions, Chief financial officer Michael Masch said the only place they still have the discretionary ability to cut is in instructional programs.
Chief financial officer Michael Masch:
"These are very serious numbers, and very difficult choices,"
The district's central office, which accounts for about 3 percent of the total $2.8 billion budget, has already taken a 50 percent cut and cannot be slashed any further.
Contracts and laws limit what the district can trim this far into the school year. Classroom teachers cannot be cut, but alternative education programs, counselors, nurses, psychologists, and librarians could be vulnerable.
"These are difficult times, and, unfortunately, they're not ending soon," interim SRC Chairman Wendell Pritchett said.
Masch told the SRC the news was not all bad - the district closed the books for the school year that ended in June with a $18.2 million surplus.
But to do so, it shifted a state grant received for fiscal 2012 into the 2011 budget - a permitted use, but one that created a matching hole in the 2012 budget - and spent $25.2 million of its cash reserves.
The cash reserve now has just $10 million in the food-service budget.
Much has changed since Masch last updated the SRC on its financial situation in August. The district will get $8 million less than planned in city tax revenue. It will get $10 million less in savings from "efficiency measures" and $5 million less than it planned from selling vacant buildings.
Asked by Commissioner Joseph Dworetzky why the district banked on getting higher prices for its buildings, Masch said not all the appraisals were in hand when the initial estimates were made.
Also, "we did anticipate, in all candor, that we would be looking at at least a slightly improving economy," Masch said.
And though it is saving $44 million because of concessions from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the district's principals' union, that's $31 million less than the district was banking on.
Masch repeated his statement that the district's fiscal bind was not the result of poor planning.
"We did see it coming," he said. "We did plan for it."
A sour economy means less revenue, and "the level of cuts we received in our funding are unprecedented," Masch said.
Officials said they were eager for a working group of private-sector executives to start examining district practices. That group is just now forming, though, and any saving it helps the district realize won't be felt until the 2012-13 fiscal year.
Dworetzky said the district must be more careful in approving contracts. He said he would be "inclined to vote against" contracts or extensions that were not competitively bid.
"We just have to really press the district staff to wring every dollar they can out of our contracting," he said. "It shouldn't be standard course to simply exercise an option on a contract."
He then voted no on a $100,000 contract extension for a firm providing climate support at Fels High. With just three members on the SRC, the resolution failed to pass without Dworetzky's support.
|
| |
| |
| TOP STORIES |
|
|
| |
| (0) responses |
|
|
THE POST | News | Sports | Culture | Business | Free Forum
| |
 |
|
|
Welcome! Start listening now for FREE! The music is always on, so choose a radio station and click to listen. You can find fun Events around Philly and
you can list yours on our Events page FREE. We will also promote cool
Philly shows, events and fundraisers on the air FREE. There are also great opportunities to become a sponsor or advertise. iRadioPhilly supports
the Philadelphia music and arts scene. If you are a local musician or
performer, send us your stuff. We will play it on our BYO radio station,
Philadelphia's Local Stage. We're designing the radio stations and iradiophilly to reflect Philadelphia's music tastes, so we'll want your input. We're glad you're here. Invite your friends. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
FOLLOW:        |
| HOME | ABOUT | ADVERTISE | CONTACT | EVENTS | PHOTOS | PODCASTS | STATIONS | CONTESTS | SPONSORS | BUSINESSES/ORGs | SCHEDULE | SITEMAP | THE POST |
|
© 2010-20 iradiophilly 501(c)(3) |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
