The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA
No comment from school officials about cuts
Spring-Ford Area School Board to address budget at meeting scheduled Monday
Sunday, March 27, 2011
By MARK D. MAROTTA, Special to the Local News
UPPER PROVIDENCE — Spring-Ford Area school officials say they will not comment about possible personnel cuts related to the district's pending budget shortfall until Monday's school board meeting.
In an e-mail Thursday night, Robert Wolfe, president of the Spring-Ford Education Association, the teachers' union, said the school board had decided "to cut certain programs" to close next year's budget deficit.
"However," Wolfe added, "right now these are only proposed program changes" that would need approval from the state Department of Education.
"If these proposed changes are approved, then these employees would be shifted to other positions that they might be qualified to teach that are not being cut," Wolfe said.
Wolfe said the district could eventually furlough some teachers in the absence of circumstances such as attrition through retirement.
Wolfe said the number of teachers possibly affected is "not set in stone, nor am I yet aware of exactly which programs the board is considering cutting. (Teachers' union) members are quite aware of the budget situation here at the district and hope to come to some arrangement where such eventualities might not be necessary."
School Board President Joe Ciresi said Thursday evening that the administration's recommendation affecting the teachers will be on the agenda of Monday's school board meeting. He declined to provide any further information, citing the nature of the issue as a personnel matter.
Ciresi said the district is trying to maintain its fiscal integrity in the face of a looming $12 million budget gap.
"We've been open and transparent about this from the start," Ciresi said.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports say that 30 custodial staff members and at least 22 teachers' aides were told Thursday they are being let go by the district later this year.
According to a source who declined to be identified, an early retirement incentive plan the school board approved earlier this week for qualified administrators, custodians, instructional aides and other support staff had generated little interest.
Contacted with a request for comment on Friday morning, district Superintendent Marsha Hurda responded that questions related to the program and staffing cuts would be addressed at the school board meeting Monday.
URL: http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2011/03/27/news/srv0000011257437.prt
© 2011 dailylocal.com, a Journal Register Property
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. Although I asked people to sign their comments (or at least use their initials), I have only been getting 'anonymous' comments. I have changed the settings to that the posts will need some sort of identifier.