School District of Lancaster plans to cut staff, programs -Lancasteronline 04/12/2011

School District of Lancaster plans to cut staff, programs
175 jobs would be outsourced. Four academic programs would be axed. 11 central office positions would be eliminated. Savings would total about $7.5 million.
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era

Updated Apr 12, 2011 23:34

Lancaster
By BRIAN WALLACE, Staff Writer

School District of Lancaster is considering eliminating or outsourcing 175 or more jobs next year under a drastic cost-cutting program unveiled Tuesday to help fill an expected $10 million funding gap.

The proposal would include outsourcing 100 custodial and alternative education jobs, cutting four academic programs, eliminating several high school electives and "realigning and reducing" 18 classroom positions.

Administrators and board members declined to specify which programs and positions would be cut, but the plan involves eliminating 11 administrative jobs and 64 other positions — mainly teachers — at district schools.

Board members assured members of the sparse audience that the district is not cutting its pre-kindergarten and all-day kindergarten programs or eliminating its music and art programs.

The reductions would total about $7.5 million — nearly making up for the $7.9 million cut in state funding for SDL in Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 2011-12 budget.

The district, which gets 44 percent of its revenue from the state, was particularly hard-hit by the cuts, which Corbett proposed in the face of a $4 billion state deficit.

"In a time when the resources aren't there, we have to rethink how we serve kids," superintendent Pedro Rivera said in announcing the cost-cutting proposal, which would be implemented in the fall.

Even with the reductions, the district is still about $3.5 million short of balancing its budget next year.

Board members agreed SDL should limit a tax increase to 2 percent — its base Act 1 index — or less, although it won permission from the state to hike taxes by more than 5 percent next year, with exceptions.

A 2 percent hike would generate only about $1.3 million in additional revenue, so the board asked the administration to propose more spending cuts in the coming weeks before it votes on a preliminary budget May 24.

Rivera said the district could not share specifics on the cuts until all affected employees are notified.

Here is what was proposed, including the potential number of job reductions and the projected savings:

• Contracting with an outside company to provide custodial services to district schools: 100 jobs, $750,000 savings.

The custodians are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.

• Contracting with Camelot Schools to run Phoenix Academy, a district alternative education school: $500,000. The impact on jobs would likely be minimal because most teachers would be offered positions elsewhere in the district.

• Cutting four academic programs: 42 jobs, $3.73 million.

• Reducing and realigning academic programs: nine elementary and nine secondary classroom positions, $1.35 million.

• Eliminating 11 central office positions: $861,900.

• Restructuring high school electives: four positions, $300,000.

Audience members complained about the lack of detail on the proposed cuts and said the board waited too long to begin debating the reductions.

But board members said they've been discussing the budget for months and weren't able to move forward with specific reductions until Corbett unveiled his budget last month.

Luz Tiru, president of the AFSCME local that represents the custodians, said union members have not had an opportunity to offer a proposal to the district that matches the projected savings from outsourcing.

Matt Przywara, SDL's chief financial officer, said SDL needs to seek proposals from potential custodial contractors before it can provide more detailed information to the union.

Under the contract, AFSCME has to be given a chance to match the offer before an outside firm can take over its contract, which runs through 2011-12.

Przywara said the contractor would have to match the salaries and health benefits in the final year of the contract, but the district would no longer have to make pension contributions for the workers.

In future years, the contractor would be free to hire its own employees and establish its own pay rates and benefits.

"I'm hoping that we can come up with a counterproposal so that we don't have to lose any of our members," Tiru said.

She said many custodians are longtime SDL employees who live in the district. They earn about $11 to $15 an hour, Tiru said.

bwallace@lnpnews.com









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