Hempfield School District staff backs pay freeze - Lancaster Online 2/8/2011

Hempfield School District staff backs pay freeze
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Updated Feb 08, 2011 22:51
By DEAN LEE EVANS, Correspondent


Hempfield school employees mounted a three-pronged attack on district salaries Tuesday with a combination of pay freezes, early retirements and a leaner contract for the superintendent.

Kris Krodel, a courier with the maintenance department, was chosen to represent the district's 374 support employees and announce Tuesday that 303 employees, or 81 percent of Hempfield's support staff, had agreed to take a voluntary pay freeze for the 2011-12 school year.

He said the members of the support staff, who are not represented by a union, met several times in small groups to discuss the idea.

"We all had to work together," he said.

Support staff includes teacher aides, custodians, librarians and counselors.

Its voluntary pay freeze follows in the footsteps of a similar move two months ago, when Hempfield executives unanimously agreed to forgo pay increases next year.

Also, business manager Mary Lynne Kniley said 26 teachers and six support staff had accepted an early retirement package offered by the district.

The retirement package is effective at the end of the school year in June.

Kniley said she did not know what impact the pay-freeze initiatives or retirements would have on the district's budget shortfall. The gap grew to $5.85 million Tuesday after the district learned earlier in the day that certain reduced state contributions to public education would cut deeper into revenues than previously expected.

"The administration will meet Friday to determine if the (teacher and support staff) positions will need to be replaced," Kniley said.

Superintendent Brenda Becker said she was proud that so many support staff and teachers accepted pay freezes and early retirements.

Becker set an example herself Tuesday night when it was decided that the district would offer her a new five-year contract.

Becker accepted several givebacks and benefits concessions, board president Bill Jimenez said. But he said he could not release specifics of the new contract because it had not been signed by the superintendent. It also will require review and approval by the district solicitor.

"I can tell you that overall her salary did go down from the 2010-11 level," Jimenez said.

Kniley said that Becker's contract should be released to the public "in a couple weeks."

The salary freezes and retirements approved by the board Tuesday come less than a month after a public forum was held to gather input on the district's budget shortfall.

Several residents last month suggested they would like to see teachers forced back to the bargaining table to renegotiate their three-year contract, which was approved last year.

"I don't even know if that is legally possible," Jessie Long, the district's community relations director, said.

While several school districts in Lancaster County are facing shortfalls, Hempfield is the first to approve mass retirements and extensive pay freezes.

Despite public outcry, Elanco School District last week announced it would furlough 15 teachers to cut costs.

Cocalico School District last month approved the closing of Schoeneck Elementary — a much-loved community school — in an effort to cut costs.

The school's 100-plus students are to be relocated next year to Denver Elementary, which will undergo renovations and an expansion to handle the increased student population.

Donegal administrators last week floated a proposal to close two school buildings and implement a districtwide realignment of kindergarten through grade eight at the district's remaining schools.

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