School Board Passes Budget With 6.32% Tax Increase

The Haverford Township Board of School Directors on Thursday night unanimously approved a nearly $89.5 million school district budget for the 2011-2012 school year, which includes a 6.32 percent annual tax increase for residential property owners,  the loss of two elementary school librarians, and no layoffs.

With the 6.32 percent tax increase, the owners of a home assessed at $160,786—the average assessment for residential properties in Haverford Township—will see their residential property tax bill increase by $249 for the year, according to budget information provided by Rick Henderson, the school district’s business manager.

School board member Russell Bilotta said for property owners who chose to pay their taxes as part of their monthly mortgage bill, the $249 tax increase will amount to paying about $21 per month.

“So $21 a month and we’re still going to put out a very good product,” Bilotta said.

The approved 2011-2012 budget for Haverford School District includes total revenues of $89.686 million in local, state and federal aid; and $89.498 million in total expenditures, leaving a surplus of $188,597 when revenues are subtracted from expenditures; and an ending fund balance of $799,663.

The school district has already accounted for a $1.3 million loss in state aid in its budget, Henderson told the Haverford-Havertown Patch.

While the state had not passed its budget by Thursday night, the governor has proposed cuts to basic education funding, social security subsidy, charter school reimbursement and grants, which would leave Haverford School District with $1.3 million less in state subsidies.

To help offset proposed state aid cuts, several of the school district’s in the form of wage freezes or deferred pay increases, saving the district a total of $759,600.

As a result, the district administration rescinded a furlough proposal and revised its recommendations on reducing the number of elementary school librarians. The school board approved the administration’s revised recommendations as part of the budget approval.

There will be no layoffs under next year’s budget, but 16.5 district positions will be eliminated through attrition, Superintendent William Keilbaugh said at a .

As part of the approved budget, the school board agreed to administration’s revised recommendation for reducing library staff from five librarians to three, school board president Denis Gray told Patch. The two librarians whose positions are being eliminated will be reassigned to classrooms.

The administration had originally recommended that staff be reduced from five librarians to one librarian who would travel around to all five elementary schools, a proposal which was met with great opposition from parents.

Unlike a where the budget was discussed, Thursday night’s meeting was sparsely attended and there was no public comment.

During a school board reports later in the meeting, school board member Larry Feinberg provided an update on the state budget.  Feinberg told Patch his latest information about the budget was based on his following of the statements state legislators had made about the budget on Twitter.

Feinberg said that on Thursday evening legislators had reached an agreement, in principal, about the budget, and that agreement, if passed as part of the state budget, may restore 85 percent of basic education funding for the current year, and $25 million may be put into a charter school reimbursement fund.

Feinberg said he thought the public’s calls this weeks to state legislatures had helped and he wanted to thank everyone who made the calls.