The Pottsville Area school board recently discussed some of the harsh realities of the state’s budget crisis.
“We are close to 300 days now without a full budget,” board member Patrick F. Moran, chairman of the board’s legislation committee, said Wednesday at the school board’s March meeting at the Howard S. Fernsler Academic Center.
“I’m coming up with 262 days, including today, since June 30, 2015,” Jon Hopcraft, executive director of the Senate Majority Policy Committee in the office of state Sen. David G. Argall, R-29, said Friday.
“Is that the longest in our history?” school board member Gary A. Cortese asked at Wednesday’s meeting.
“I’m finding that it was 336 days in 1956,” Hopcraft said Friday, citing a report on the subject put together by the PNC Financial Services Group.
The third longest state budget impasse on record occurred in 1970 and 1971. It was a 248-day impasse that involved the first PA income tax, according to PNC’s report.
“Has the governor said what his opposition is to it?” board member Christina M. DiCello asked.
“The primary opposition from his office is the lack of address of pension reform, the lack of address of the deficit and fair education funding,” Moran said.
“The harsh reality is they were supposed to be working on the 2016-17 budget in two weeks,” Moran said.
“Do we have to pass ours in June?” board President John F. Boran asked.
“Yes. And there is no leeway for us not to pass a budget as a district. We need to come up with fantasy numbers to match their fantasy numbers and we’ll see if it’s going to come through. It’s truly a sad state of affairs at this point,” Moran said.
“School districts should band together and deny submitting a budget. What would they do?” Boran asked.
Moran wasn’t sure, but he said some school districts in the state that are in debt are considering closing after Easter break.
“My personal opinion is that the governor, the legislature and all those associated with the legislature should not have been paid since July 1,” Moran said.
In other matters at Wednesday’s meeting, the board accepted the resignation of Scott Delenick as junior high assistant track coach for the 2016 season, effective Feb. 22.
Then the board hired Raymond R. “Rusty” Yost III, the district’s dean of students, as the junior high assistant track coach for the 2016 season, retroactive to March 7, at a salary of $1,500.
“Those extra-curricular stipends are set by the collective bargaining agreement,” Stephen C. Curran, the district’s business manager, said Friday.
The board also approved the following postseason pay to the following coaches for the extended winter coaching season: Dave Mullaney, boys’ basketball, $1,700; John Toomey, boys’ basketball, $1,500; Tom McGeoy, boys’ basketball, $1,500; Gary Keener, wrestling, $1,275; Jason Thomas, wrestling, $1,125; Curt Ziegmont, girls’ basketball, $1,700; Jenn Stock, girls’ basketball, $1,500; and Serenity Allen, girls’ basketball, $1,500.
The board also approved the following recommendations from its committee on personnel:
• Accepted the resignation of Michelle Goodman as a part-time cafeteria worker at D.H.H. Lengel Middle School.
• Hired Michelle Goodman as a part-time library aide at Pottsville Area High School as of Thursday at $12 per hour.
• Accepted the resignation of Rachel Snukis, part-time substitute paraprofessional, effective Feb. 12.
• Rescinded the Feb. 17 motion to hire Lisa Herndon as a part-time paraprofessional effective March 16.
• Hired Joie Lynne Gardner as a part-time substitute paraprofessional effective Thursday.
• Hired two full-time custodians, effective Thursday, at the following salaries, Michael Hallick, $18,500 for the year, and Charles McKeone, $19,000 for the year.
In other business, the Pottsville Area School District is planning to hold a public hearing in the near future regarding Gillingham Charter School and its proposal for charter renewal, Richard A. Thornburg, the board’s solicitor, said Wednesday.
“We don’t have a date yet. It’s probably going to be in April,” Thornburg said.
On Dec. 2, the school board rejected the charter school’s proposal for a second five-year charter, citing a list of reasons in a five-page resolution. According to the resolution, the school board resolved to hold a public hearing “on or about February 10, 2016, subject to rescheduling.” The resolution gave the school board the right to appoint a hearing officer for such an event.
On Jan. 20, the board in a voice vote hired attorney Mark Fisher from the firm Worth, Magee & Fisher Law Offices, Allentown, as an “independent hearing officer.”
“He would be involved with us at a rate of $185 an hour,” Thornburg said Jan. 20.
Since then, Ellen C. Schurdak, Bethlehem, an attorney the district hired recently on a dispute with the charter school over access to special education records, recommended the school board make the hiring more official by adopting a resolution, Thornburg said.
So, on Wednesday, the school board decided to adopt a resolution to hire Fisher as a “fact finder for the public hearing,” Thornburg said.
“It’s the same position. As a fact finder, he will listen to all of the evidence from both sides and then he will make a recommendation. He will cost $185 an hour,” Thornburg said.