Board Meeting on Monday April 6th

I want to give a heads on on the meeting date for April. Because of the way Pennsylvania law deals with timelines and passing of school budgets, the Board needs to have its discussion and voting meetings on the 1st and 2nd Monday of April.

On Monday's agenda you can see that we again will be talking about the budget. See my initial impressions in my last post here. I am sure we will talk more about any staff changes that can contribute to lessening the millage impact of this budget.

There was an interesting article in The Almanac about the Board addressing a five year budget plan. The last two years I had requested this long term planning as a tool for the Board to use to see the impact that decisions made today have on the future millage in our budget. Here is an excerpt:

Klein gave board members a five-year forecast which projects trends in expenses though the 2014-2015 school year. Given a 3-4 percent increase in salaries each year, an 8% increase in medical, no changes in county assessments, $117 million debt on the new high school and changes in PSERS, the district's millage rate would go from 23.81 in 2008-2009 to 37.13 in 2014-2015

Ms. Klein does make the point that this is a just a forecast and the numbers will no doubt change. The "worst case scenario" budget would result in a 55% increase in real estate taxes in Mt Lebanon. However, that worst case scenario budget is only referred to as a worst case for PSERS, not high school construction costs, salary increases, health care increases, etc. And to be perfectly honest, PSERS banking on an 8% rate of return on their investments going forward makes it so this actually isn't a worst case scenario at all. On the brighter side, given the rise in the stock markets the last month, the PSERS contribution rate may be all the way back down to where it was in December. This would still be a 250% increase the contribution rate.

The Board will also be discussing what to do with a projected surplus from the 2008-2009 budget. Once we get more accurate and final numbers from the Earned Income Tax part of our budget for this year we should have a better idea about what this number might be. Today it stands at around $1 million. Last year we had a surplus that was due largely to liened taxes being collected and a reassessment of the Galleria. This year our surplus is due more to the efforts of the Superintendent restraining spending during the school year. The question of what to do with our surplus will undoubtedly come up. I think everyone on the Board wants to put this money towards some future expense. The discussion will most likely revolve around what expense it should be. I am hopeful that we will put it towards something that will reduce future millage.

Of additional note, there is a discussion item on the agenda dealing with expanding the District's lunch program to all the elementary school's. While this item clearly does not get the attention of passing budgets or Graduation Competency Exams, it is still an important change in the way we do business.

We are chock full of meetings the next two months. Below is the schedule:

April 13, 2009 – 7:00 p.m. Focus on Instruction - Math
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

April 13, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. Regular Meeting
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

April 14, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. Policy Committee Meeting
Conference Room B, Mt. Lebanon High School

April 16, 2009 – 7:00 p.m. Audit & Finance Committee Meeting
Conference Room B, Mt. Lebanon High School

May 5, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. Policy Committee Meeting
Conference Room B, Mt. Lebanon High School

May 11, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. Discussion Meeting
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

May 14, 2009 – 7:00 p.m. Audit & Finance Committee Meeting
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

May 18, 2009 – 7:00 p.m. Focus on Instruction – Distance Learning
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

May 18, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. Regular Meeting
Mt. Lebanon High School Library