POTTSTOWN PA – They may not have liked the idea of forcing families whose students participate in Pottsgrove School District extracurricular activities to pay for that privilege, but – in the end – members of the district Community Budget Task Force didn’t rule the option out.

Gary DeRenzo, facillitator for the Extracurricular Committee of the Pottsgrove Community Budget Task Force, delivered its findings Tuesday to the school board.

The pay-to-play proposal, as it’s being called, could add $54,480 to district revenues, the task force Extracurricular Activities Committee estimated, in findings it submitted Tuesday (April 12, 2011) to the district Board of School Directors.

The committee was one of six that handed directors their suggestions to trim expenses and increase cash flow under the 2011-2012 preliminary budget, during the board’s meeting in Ringing Rocks Elementary School, North Keim Street, Pottstown PA. The $58.5 million budget currently includes an almost $2 million deficit; task force committees were charged by directors to recommend ways to close the gap.

They reportedly found about half the amount, $1 million, according to research and results distributed to the board. President Michael Neiffer had hoped as much as $6 million might be uncovered.

During its deliberations of recent weeks, the Extracurricular Committee weighed pros and cons of requiring students involved in sports, clubs, special interest groups and other mostly after-school activities to pay fees for doing so. A few neighboring districts have already adopted such a policy, others facing similar budget woes are giving it serious consideration.

Pay-to-play was first raised by committee members in February, and kicked around during March. They generally agreed after-school programming benefited all participants, and that charging fees might unfairly restrict students whose families could not afford to pay them. The committee was prepared to eliminate the idea, its minutes show, until Director David Faulkner suggested otherwise.

The school board needed all the help it could get with the budget, now and in the future, Faulkner contended. As unpalatable as the idea seemed, he said, it may be necessary … if not this year, then in coming years. So pay-to-play, which represents the largest monetary item of five the committee suggested, stayed in the committee’s mix.

Committee members propose the district can save a total of $128,053. Of that amount – besides the $54,480 in pay-to-play revenue – they say:

• $35,445 might be gained by cutting out supplemental positions “that are not currently filled, needed, or a luxury;”
• $22,128, by eliminating clubs at the elementary schools only;
• $15,000, by eliminating intramural sports in which a varsity or junior varsity team already exists; and
• $1,000, by requiring family members of district employees to pay their own way into ticketed events.

Also Tuesday, Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis reportedly announced that district administrators, principals, directors and supervisors all offered to freeze their pay during the 2011-2012 school year, saving another $70,000 in salary costs. The move coincided with a school budget-related development elsewhere that may affect Pottsgrove.

The West Chester (PA) school board on Monday said it had reached agreement with that district’s teachers’ union and others on similar wage freezes. West Chester Area Education Association President Debbie Fell said her union’s decision to accept a wage freeze “was proactive and voluntary … and not the result of discussions made at the negotiations table,” the West Chester Daily Local News newspaper reported Tuesday.

Wage freeze proposals were endorsed last month by the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. The Pottsgrove Federation of Teachers, which is part of the PSEA, has not yet publicly commented on the prospect of a wage freeze for its members.

Related (to the Pottsgrove School District 2011-2012 budget):

• Pottsgrove Task Force Didn’t Shelve Pay-To-Play Plan
• Committee: Charter School May Save Pottsgrove $70K
• Pottsgrove Paying $28K Next Year For MCIU Support
• Secretary Says Schools Must Find Funds Themselves
• College Students Protest Proposed Ed Budget Cuts
• Pay Freeze Endorsed As Pottsgrove Labor Talks Start
• Pottsgrove High Protesters Exercise Art Of Compromise
• Pottsgrove’s Landis Distributes State Fund Comparison
• Pottsgrove Budget Deficit Balloons With Gov’s Proposal
• MCIU Budgets On Pottsgrove Schools Agenda Tonight
• PA House OKs ‘Cut And Replace’ On Education Funding
• Idea: Other Local Schools Consider Extracurricular Fees
• Idea: Pottsgrove Might Prosper With Own Charter School
• Pooling Resources Could Save Pottsgrove On Special Ed
• Like Pottsgrove Task Force, Outsiders Weigh Cost Vs. Value
• Task Force Crowd Packs Into Pottsgrove For First Session
• School Budget Task Force Kicks Off Its Work Tonight
• Does Western PA School Tax Uprising Foretell Mood Here?
• Pottsgrove Schools Budget Short Another $400,000
• Pottsgrove, As Expected, Adopts Budget First Draft
• Pottsgrove Tentative Budget Adoption Expected
• Weather Postpones Pottsgrove Budget Meeting
• Still Time In Pottsgrove For Budget Volunteers To Enlist
• Challenge To Pottsgrove Budget Advisers: 10 Percent
• Best Guesses, Deficit Launch Pottsgrove Budget Season
• Senate Education Chair Preps For Voucher, Choice Battle
• School Board Questions Pottsgrove Recreation Costs
• Pension Reform Vote Could Benefit Pottsgrove, Others
• Notebook Worthy: News Reporters Made News Tuesday
• Pottsgrove Isn’t Waiting In Search For Budget Volunteers
• If You’ve Got A Budget Idea, Pottsgrove Says It’ll Listen
• Pottsgrove Seeks More Public Input On District Budget

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ April 12 meeting):

• Pottsgrove Task Force Didn’t Shelve Pay-To-Play Plan
• Committee: Charter School May Save Pottsgrove $70K

DeRenzo photo for The Post by Aimee M. Herbert, Aimee Marie Photography