The Sanatoga Post

POTTSTOWN PA – Walk in, sit down, shut up. Listen, take notes. Ask questions, get answers, leave.

That describes the life of most news reporters who attend municipal meetings like that of the Pottsgrove School District‘s Board of School Directors. However, that isn’t exactly what happened during the board’s Tuesday night (Oct. 26, 2010) meeting at the district administration building on Kauffman Road, Pottstown PA.

Two reporters who actively cover the directors’ actions – Evan Brandt of The (Pottstown PA) Mercury, and Joe Zlomek of The Sanatoga Post – were, for about 5 minutes only, active participants in the event they were assigned to write about.

Their involvement followed a board discussion of how best to let the public know of the district’s interest in having volunteers serve on its new Community Budget Task Force. Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis had already described communication tools on which the district could rely: its quarterly newsletter, phone message chains, e-mail distributions, press releases, and board members’ word-of-mouth.

Neither Brandt or Zlomek thought that was enough and, without being asked, told the board as much.

Brandt first suggested involving students as task force members. After all, he reasoned, they would be most affected by whatever budget cuts arose from that group’s deliberations. He also suggested the district, or at least board members themselves, engage the public in social media venues like Twitter and Facebook. Explaining budget problems online, and openly soliciting feedback, was a sure way to identify both interests and solutions, Brandt noted.

Zlomek suggested the district tap into audiences it often found more difficult to reach: senior citizens, and district taxpayers without children. Seniors in particular, Zlomek said, could be approached in community meetings held in their own neighborhoods, and might have more time and enthusiasm to help the district re-examine and solve its financial woes.

Did Brandt and Zlomek overstep their bounds in becoming part of the news that night? Clearly neither seemed to think so when they volunteered their comments. And when they finished, Landis – who took notes as both spoke – thanked them for their thoughts.

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

• 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 Input On District Budget
• Download a copy of the Oct. 26 meeting agenda, here

Photo from Clipart.com

Ready to get started.

POTTSTOWN PA – No moss will be allowed to grow, apparently, beneath the virtual feet of the Pottsgrove School District as it looks for volunteers to offer suggestions in paring its upcoming budget.

Less than 24 hours after the district Board of School Directors decided to ask Pottsgrove stakeholders to donate their time and talents in determining 2011-2012 budget priorities, Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis issued a press release seeking workers for what is being called the “Community Budget Task Force.”

The board’s informal agreement to form the task force occurred Tuesday night (Oct. 26, 2010) at about 8:30 p.m. Landis’ e-mailed release was distributed the next afternoon (Wednesday, Oct. 27) at 3:50 p.m.

The task force itself won’t be formed until January, Landis noted, so why the urgency? “The time frame is somewhat tight,” his prepared statement answered.

Collectively, the task force could be expected to “put in hundreds of hours of research and deliberations” before presenting findings for directors’ consideration, it said. Rather than wait for word to slowly filter out about its need, Landis acknowledged Pottsgrove is already beating the bushes to find “anyone interested in participating.”

Volunteers are asked to express their interest by calling Landis’ secretary, Barb Paolucci, at 610-327-2277, Ext. 1011, or by sending an e-mail to CommunityBudget@pgsd.org.

The district hopes as many as 30 or more people – community residents, parents of school children, Pottsgrove employees, and others – will agree to serve on committees that would analyze the schools’ expenses and recommend operating efficiencies and potential budget cuts.

Like other districts “around the region and nation, Pottsgrove is looking at a serious budget deficit for at least the next two years,” the release explained. Its shortfall could amount to as much as $2 million, Landis said, and added, “we want the input of our community as we make these tough choices.”

During its discussions Tuesday, the board anticipated task force members will:

• Open with a group meeting in which they would get an overview of the district’s budget crisis and its causes;
• Divide into subcommittees to focus on specific areas of spending;
• Examine expenses in energy and facilities, student transportation, educational programs, technology, and extracurricular activities;
• Identify cost savings;
• Develop a feasibility report on ways to operate in a more cost-effective manner; and
• Deliver their findings to directors in April 2011.

Task force meetings have been tentatively set for Feb. 1, Feb. 15, March 15, and March 29, all from 7 to 9 p.m. in Pottsgrove High School, Kauffman Road, Pottstown PA.

• These events have been added to The Post calendar.

Board members have repeatedly said they would reserve “the right to make final decisions regarding budget priorities,” and task force findings would “be advisory in nature.”

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

• Pottsgrove Isn’t Waiting In Search For Budget Volunteers
• 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

Top photo from Clipart.com

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

POTTSTOWN PA – The more, the merrier … or at least, maybe the greater the understanding … as far as the Pottsgrove School District’s 2011-2012 budget is concerned, the district Board of School Directors hopes.

The board, which meets tonight for its second session of October in the administration building, Kauffman Road, Pottstown PA, has asked Superintendent Bradley Landis to propose how it might involve an increased number of district residents on committees and in other ways to offer comments and input on structuring next year’s budget.

Budget planning is just getting under way, district Business Administrator David Nester told board members during their Oct. 12 meeting. A final budget likely won’t be approved until June 2011.

Between now and then, board President Michael Neiffer suggested, “it might be worthwhile to do what West Chester did, and get people to understand what we’re up against.”

Neiffer alluded to a budget exercise conducted by the West Chester (PA) School District last year that brought dozens of individuals into round-table discussions on the district’s spending priorities. It was well received and got positive press attention, he said, not unlike Pottsgrove’s efforts to involve many people in discussions about renovations at Ringing Rocks Elementary School, Neiffer added.

The big difference between Ringing Rocks and the budget, however, is that far more choices were available to consider for the elementary school building, directors conceded.

Much of what the school district spends is either fixed by contractual obligations – teacher and staff salaries, for example – or by state or federal mandates such as those for children with learning disabilities. Only a small portion is discretionary spending over which the board has control, members said. Of that, the district may be forced to cut up to $1.2 million, and possibly more, if promised state educational subsidies fall though.

“It’s going to be painful,” offered board Treasurer Fred Remelius. “It would be nice to have the public understand what we’re about to get into,” he said.

“If we’re bringing the public in, we’ve got to make them aware that final decisions must be made by the school board,” director Nancy Landes observed. “It’s a good thing to get their suggestions, but it’s got to be advisory,” director April Kontostathis agreed.

The specifics of gaining more public input were left to Landis, who said he would report on the matter tonight.

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

• Download a copy of the Oct. 26 meeting agenda, here

Economic stimulus cash is headed Pottsgrove's way.

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – A one-time federal economic stimulus infusion of $1.6 million, used creatively by the Pottsgrove School District, can lower next year’s projected budget deficit from $646,000 to $71,000, Business Administrator David Nester told the district Board of School Directors on Tuesday (April 28, 2009).

But the money would not reduce the proposed 2009-2010 property tax rate increase of 5.2 percent, Nester acknowledged, and some of it might be allocated to projects the board already decided not to pursue. While his recommendations were accepted by a majority, three obviously unhappy directors voted against them and board President Michael Neiffer warned more needed to be cut from the budget.

Neiffer’s challenge to administrators: within the next two weeks, eliminate another $300,000 in costs and trim the tax increase by about 1 percent. They won’t be cutting blindly, though. During the same period, at the urging of board Treasurer Fred Remelius, directors expect to guide district officials on what else they think can be sacrificed to meet the goal.

Nester noted his plan to use the stimulus bonus, authorized in January by Congress for distribution to the nation’s schools, broadly interprets some rules on how it can be spent. In some cases, he said, stimulus funds will pay for goods or services that would have come from other parts of the budget anyway, “while increasing the local money for other uses” like reducing the deficit.

His aim in applying stimulus funds, Nester told directors candidly, was to avoid costs that might haunt the board in future budgets. The district specifically wants to avoid hires represented by labor bargaining units, whose positions may not be easily eliminated in later years. “When funding dries up,” district Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis said, “we’re not obligated to keep anyone.”

“We don’t want something that would come back and bite us in two years,” Neiffer agreed.

In addition, stimulus cash could resurrect projects district administrators favor, like the installation of overhead projectors and technology enhancements at Lower and West Pottsgrove elementary schools, and improvements to the Pottsgrove High School athletic fields. Those have been hot-button issues among some directors, and Tuesday raised several objections.

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ April 28 meeting):

• District OKs Architect Negotiations

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Pottstown's library.

SANATOGA PA – Reacting to what they described as an overwhelming response from constituents, members of the Lower Pottsgrove Township Board of Commissioners reversed course Thursday night (Dec. 18, 2008) and decided to restore previously cut funding for the Pottstown Public Library. It won’t happen until January, though, and so the board approved the township’s 2009 budget technically without changes.

As a result, the township’s real estate tax rate next year for overall operating expenses remains unchanged from 2008 at 1.958 mills, or about $1.96 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. The board raised the real estate tax rate for fire services to .34 mills (34 cents per $1,000), as previously announced, but left all other fees and rates unchanged as well.

Bottom line: on a home in Lower Pottsgrove assessed at $200,000, its owners will pay about $460 in township property taxes next year.

The surprise of the night was the commissioners’ unanimous pledge to return $30,000 in library funding axed from the budget in November. Board members said they would make a special appropriation during January from unreserved funds – the township’s piggy bank – to ensure the library receives the same $60,000 contribution from the township it got this year.

Commissioners also said they would re-examine at mid-year, but made no promises to fully restore, another $3,100 in funds also cut from the budget for the Visiting Nurses Association of Pottstown and Vicinity, the Pottstown Area Seniors Center, and the Lower Pottsgrove Historical Society. Those agencies in 2009 are budgeted to get only half the amounts previously contributed by the township.

“We’ve never had the type or volume of feedback” on a budget issue as board members received from the public over their proposed library funding cut, Commissioner Jonathan Spadt said Thursday. “It became very clear to us that we needed to make an adjustment.”

“I thought everyone was getting most of their information from the Internet,” added Commissioner Stephen Klotz. But when even members of high school-level sports teams he coaches took him to task over the library money, “I knew I was changing my mind,” Klotz conceded.

Also helping to change board thinking, according to Commissioner James Phillips, was a meeting with library officials and a tour of the library during the past month. “We discussed funding levels and government mandates, and had better information than before to be able to make a decision,” Phillips said.

Library Interim Director Carolyn Wiker was in the audience for the board’s announcement. “We greatly appreciate your willingness to reconsider our situation,” she told commissioners.

Also Thursday, the board:

• Ratified new labor contracts for its police chief and uniformed officers.
• Approved changes to save money under a 2005 loan agreement of which the township Sewer Authority is a part; and
• Set meeting dates for 2009.

Related:

• Budget Resolutions In The Spotlight
• Township Expects Givers’ Pinch
• Keep Library Funding, School Board Asks
• Trump Card In The Budget Discussion
• Commissioners: Damned If They Did, And …
• Township Budget Summary Online
• First Glance At Lower Pottsgrove’s Budget
• Make No Mistake, It’s Not Final
• A Difference In Openness
• Tax Rates On Township Agenda
• Board Proclaims No Tax Increase Intent
• 2009 Budget On Board’s Agenda

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SANATOGA PA – Resolutions addressing the approval of the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township 2009 budget, and its accompanying taxes and rates (for real estate, fire services, street light assessments, and others), top the agenda for the township Board of Commissioners‘ meeting tonight (Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008) at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd.

The meeting is open to the public. The agenda has been available for download since Wednesday (Dec. 17, 2008).

Additionally, during what commissioners consider their “Close-Out Meeting,” they are scheduled to consider approval of two contracts that have a significant effect on township spending during 2009: a four-year labor agreement with uniformed officers of its Police Department, and a separate labor agreement for Police Chief Michael Shade.

Comparing Lower Pottsgrove Police Department overall expenses since 2004. Figures for 2008 are projected. Figures of 2009 are tentatively budgeted. See the bulleted notes below.

• Police department budgeted expenses for 2009, as compared to previous years (see the chart above), seem to be in line even with the increased personnel costs of a new labor contract. Public comments added to articles last month in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper suggested department expenses overall were uncustomary. With the exception of 2007, the 8.8% projected rise in police operating costs for 2009 over 2008 falls within or below the range of increases to the same line item since 2004. In the chart, figures in yellow represent costs in millions; figures in purple represent percentage changes in cost from the previous year.

Commissioners also are expected to publicly refer to letters the township received during the past month from the Pottstown Public Library and the Pottstown Area Seniors Center.

Although the letters’ contents are not defined in the agenda, it’s likely both discuss township budget cuts to those agencies. The cuts themselves have been an item of controversy in local news media since November. Commissioners were asked to restore funding to those and two other non-profit groups previously eliminated from the 2009 budget, and the night’s drama may lie in learning how – if at all – they act on the requests.

Commissioners also may hear about correspondence from Traffic Planning And Design of Sanatoga regarding potential repairs to the East High Street bridge, and from the Montgomery County Planning Commission regarding the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422.

A notice of the board’s intent to conduct an executive session regarding a personnel matter, following its regular meeting, appears at the bottom of agenda items.

Related:

• Township Expects Givers’ Pinch
• Keep Library Funding, School Board Asks
• Trump Card In The Budget Discussion
• Commissioners: Damned If They Did, And …
• Township Budget Summary Online
• First Glance At Lower Pottsgrove’s Budget
• Make No Mistake, It’s Not Final
• A Difference In Openness
• Tax Rates On Township Agenda
• Board Proclaims No Tax Increase Intent
• 2009 Budget On Board’s Agenda

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Tentative.

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – The collapse of Wall Street, a national recession, and job layoffs all have contributed to a sharp decline in charitable giving statewide. The township Board of Commissioners apparently expects to feel that pinch, too, according to the township’s 2009 tentative budget.

Thanks to an occasional bequest or, more often, small donations from a grateful residents, Lower Pottsgrove in years past could anticipate contributions to community welfare or its Police Department of somewhere between $1,500 and $3,000 annually. The recent high point of giving to the township came in 2006, budget documents indicate, when donors volunteered $3,800 in miscellaneous revenue.

Next year, it seems, will be a far different story. The 2009 budget shows commissioners expect only $800 in gifts, about 60 percent less than the $2,167 projected to be received this year.

The donations represent only a small fraction of 1 percent of the township general fund income of $5.3 million. Instead, the budget relies on real estate and earned income taxes for about 49 percent of its revenue. Rates for both are expected to remain unchanged for 2009.

Final action on, and possible adoption of, the township’s budget package is scheduled for Thursday (Dec. 18, 2008) during the commssioners’ meeting at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Sanatoga PA. The public may attend.

Related:

• Keep Library Funding, School Board Asks
• Trump Card In The Budget Discussion
• Commissioners: Damned If They Did, And …
• Township Budget Summary Online
• First Glance At Lower Pottsgrove’s Budget
• Make No Mistake, It’s Not Final
• A Difference In Openness
• Tax Rates On Township Agenda
• Board Proclaims No Tax Increase Intent
• 2009 Budget On Board’s Agenda

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Income was higher and expenses were lower in the Pottsgrove School District for the fiscal year ending June 30, giving it a budget surplus of $1.3 million, the district Board of Education officially learned last night (Oct. 14, 2008).

District bank accounts bulged by $300,000 more than anticipated, Business Administrator David Nester said, and Pottsgrove spent about $1 million less than expected. Other budget items might alter the final amount slightly, Nester added, as the district “wraps up” its end-of-fiscal-year audit.

School board members, delighted by the news, also heard Nester’s options on what might be done with the money. They unanimously decided to re-allocate $1 million as savings for future capital improvements, including the possible renovation of Ringing Rocks Elementary School, and they also put away $500,000 to pay for future district employee retirement obligations.

The difference between the $1.5 million in allocations and the $1.3 million surplus requires a transfer from the district’s existing fund balance. That, too, was approved.

One option considered and ultimately declined by board members was to use the surplus to offset district costs in the coming year, which Nester acknowledged could lower property taxes or reduce the amount of a tax increase. The business administrator warned, however, that taxes in years following such a reduction historically jump significantly “to make up the shortfall.”

Collections of earned income taxes and delinquent property taxes through June were “modestly stronger” – by $300,000 – than originally budgeted, Nester explained. In addition, Pottsgrove spent less than it planned on special education and transportation.

The board has not announced any plans or intentions to renovate, upgrade or expand any of Pottsgrove’s facilities. However, a report on the state of the district’s buildings, and its building needs in coming years, was previewed last month by hired consultant Gilbert Architects Inc. of Lancaster. It preliminarily suggests building changes that, if approved, could cost several million dollars.

It’s the week of “B” words. As in “brace” yourself, “budget” talk ahead.

The annual process of determining how much money (in taxes and other revenues) is available next year to public officials for operating the governing bodies to which they were elected – and how that money gets spent – is under way. It’s part of a political cycle-of-life many taxpayers consider arduous and boring … until they get their tax bills.

Pottsgrove (PA) School District Board of Education members alluded to the start of “budget season” Tuesday (Sept. 23, 2008) following a discussion during their work session of conceptual renovations at Ringing Rocks Elementary School. The “B” word arose again last night (Sept. 25, 2008) during the second monthly meeting of the Lower Pottsgrove Township Board of Commissioners.

“It’s a long process,” board Vice President Jonathan Spadt admitted, saying the township’s budget exercises began with a recent staff meeting. “We’ve got tough decisions to make,” Spadt added, because “we all know where the economy is right now.”

Then, as they must do to keep things running, commissioners gave their official OK to several expenses.

They paid $500 as a contribution to support the World War II Veterans’ Memorial recently erected in the borough of Pottstown’s Memorial Park. Board member Anthony Doyle said he considered the donation appropriate to honor township residents who served during the war, “although it’s 60 years too late;” his colleagues unanimously agreed. They also paid $40 to buy advertising to support a November fund-raising event for Pottsgrove American Legion programs that benefit veterans.

Commissioners said they would spend, during 2009, a combined total of about $216,000 to fund retirement pension plans for both police (uniformed) and other (non-uniformed) township employees. Joe Duda of Flourtown PA-based Duda Actuarial Consultants assured the board the township’s actual outlay would amount to only $54,000; 75 percent of the pension cost for Lower Pottsgrove’s 28 covered workers, he said, was reimbursed by the state.

Although it was not mentioned last night, labor contract talks with township police have been on commissioners’ minds. How and when they are settled, possibly by December, certainly could affect next year’s budget.

Earlier this month, at its Sept. 3 meeting, board member Stephen Klotz said the “negotiations keep moving along. There’s some give and take, but we feel we’re going to get there without having to go to arbitration.” Negotiators for the township and represented officers met several times in recent months, “and are nearing a completion point,” Spadt concurred at the time.