Pennsbury Officials Continue To Reduce Budget Deficit

Pennsbury School District officials are working to trim their budget as the June 30 deadline approaches.

During a sparsely attended budget hearing held at Oxford Valley Elementary School in Falls Township recently, Pennsbury business administrator Dan Rodgers went over where the budget stands along with several school board members and administrators.

The proposed $203 million spending plan still falls short of revenues by $5,240,152, Rodgers said.

The budget gap has been pared down since the preliminary proposed spending plan was introduced earlier this year.

Rodgers said some options for reducing the budget include accepting some risk in salary budget, reduce staff positions, review transportation budget, take a look at discretionary student competitions and reviewing facility costs.

Some items that could play into revenues are the state budget, federal subsidies, enrollment numbers, retirements and tax assessments, the business manager explained.

The district’s obligation to the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System is $31 million in the next budget. About half of that money will be refunded by the state.

A presentation showed district special education costs have risen by $9 million to $37.1 million since 2009 while subsidies for the programs have remained at about $5 million.

The school board will have decide if they want to raise taxes to increase revenues before they approve the budget.

If the taxes were raised to the Act I limit of 2.5 percent, the district would raise about $3.5 million additional revenues, Rodgers said.

In addition, Pennsbury has received approval for special exemptions from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to raise taxes about the 2.5 percent Act I limit.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Rodgers said.

Falls Township resident Frank Carr suggested to district officials that different class size models to reduce the staff headcount should be investigated.

Robert Abrams, a regular at public meetings who resides in Lower Makefield, said Pennsbury’s staff is “bloated” and needs to be evaluated. He said cutting staff would reduce the pension contributions.

The plan is to adopt a proposed budget May 4 and vote on the final budget June 8.

Another public budget meeting will be held starting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18 at Quarry Hill Elementary School at 1625 Quarry Road in Yardley.