POTTSTOWN PA – If you’re a stakeholder in the Pottsgrove School District – a parent, a property owner, a taxpayer, a resident, a teacher, an employee, a vendor or a business owner – the district Board of School Directors informally agreed Tuesday night (Oct. 26, 2010) that it not only wants, but needs, your help in determining how next year’s schools budget will shape up.

There’s a big task ahead of them, directors said. It is possible that, with the loss of one-time federal stimulus money available only during this year and a lack of increases in or potential cuts to state funding, the district may be required to reduce its annual spending plan by 3 percent or more.

Dissenting ideas will be welcomed, the school board said of budget discussions.

Pottsgrove’s current budget amounts to about $54 million. Directors said they are looking to find savings of between $1.2 and $1.6 million in programs or services that can actually be modified; that is, they are not contractually fixed (such as teacher salaries) or required under state or federal laws.

Board President Michael Neiffer hinted, however, that even previously taboo discussions on class size – meaning the number of students in each classroom – could be on the table too. That notion set heads of other board members and administrators shaking from side-to-side, but none openly disagreed. “I think you’ve got to say nothing’s off limits,” Neiffer noted.

Which is where public assistance comes in. The board accepted, without a formal vote, a plan presented by Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis to seek out volunteers – directors said they are hoping for 30 or more – to make some findings on what they feel spending priorities should be … or not. Recruiting for the volunteer group probably would begin in December or January.

“The more we can get the public involved with what the issues are, the better off we’ll be,” board Treasurer Fred Remelius said.

It may take a few months, Landis and Business Administrator David Nester acknowledged, just to get a more accurate handle on how much or little money the district can expect to receive from other revenue sources. “It’s a continuously moving target,” Landis said of the funding numbers.

In creating public committees to offer thoughts on budget priorities, the district is taking a page from a playbook used last year in the West Chester (PA) School District, and currently employed in the Upper Perkiomen Valley, according to Landis. Ideally, committees would be co-chaired by a district administrator and a public volunteer, and would have between January and mid-March to make their determinations.

Dissenters – stakeholders who are particularly irked about certain expenses – won’t be shut out of the process, directors promised. One thing Pottsgrove administrators said they learned in talking last week with West Chester officials is that inviting those with “an agenda” could be worthwhile.

“If it’s perceived we’re stacking the committees, even if we’re not, then their legitimacy is questionable,” Landis observed. The lesson, he added, “is that dissenting voices are good.”

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Oct. 26 meeting):

• If You’ve Got A Budget Idea, Pottsgrove Says It’ll Listen
• Pottsgrove Seeks More Input On District Budget
• Download a copy of the Oct. 26 meeting agenda, here

Photo from Clipart.com