We have some interesting items on the agenda for tonight's meeting. You can find the agenda in full here. Below are some topics that might generate some thoughts:
1) Revisions to the 2009-2010 Calendar- We have had a ton of snow days this year. So many so that we are going to have to eat away at some future school days that we would normally have had off. It is inconvenient, but necessary, to make the changes to the school calendar. I would urge any parents/students that may be affected by the changes to the schedule to reach out to their teachers as soon as possible to figure out how best to move forward through any scheduling conflicts.
2) Resolution on PSERS Projected Rate Increases- As you may know, the Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement System is projecting tremendous increases in expenses going forward. While Governor Rendell has presented in his budget a way to reduce the immediate impact of these increases in the very near term, his budget would make later year increases worse than current projections. In the Audit/Finance Committee I made the recommendation that we pass a resolution urging the State Legislature to pass meaningful and lasting pension reform that would lessen the projected tax impact on local school districts. The wording of this proposal before the Board does not advocate for a particular type of reform, but instead asks more generally for the State to address the issue soon. Any suggestion of a particular type of reform (such as the PSBA recommendations) has the potential to create conflict with with our teachers union, and quite frankly, the PSBA solution may not be the best solution out there. I don't know what the right solution is, but what I do know is that the projected tax increases will bankrupt a number of Districts statewide.
3) Turf replacement- Since we received word that the District was to get almost $2.5 million in liened taxes from the sale of the Covenant, the Audit Finance Committee recommended that some of that money be used to replace the stadium turf. We budgeted $750,000 just last month for this replacement. Bids came back in at $432,900.
4) Single Prime Mandate Waiver- The school board is asking for a waiver from using multiple prime contractors for the high school project. This has the potential to save money on the high school project. Actual dollars will be hard to quantify.
That's all for now. Sorry about the long delay between posts. I went on a trip that threw off my schedule a little bit.
Thanks for reading.
James
