School officials defend $3.2B budget

Top officials of the Philadelphia School District yesterday tried to defuse City Council's concerns about the district's $3.2 billion budget for the coming fiscal year.

Councilman Bill Green questioned whether the district could make do without additional state funding proposed - but not guaranteed - by Gov. Rendell.

"You can't really rely on the promise of this revenue when planning a budget," Green said, referring to a proposed $95 million increase in the state's basic-education subsidy for the district.

Green also asked what the district would do when federal stimulus funds dry up in 2011-12.

"We're planning for that," Michael Masch, the district's top business official, said at a council hearing.

"We're not going back to the days of financial [distress]," he said, adding that it is customary to develop a budget based on projections of the city's and state's financial plans.

Last year, Rendell proposed giving the district an increase of $223 million. But once state lawmakers finalized the budget months later, it called for an increase of only $79 million and the district had to scramble to make up the difference.

This fiscal year, the district anticipates receiving $8 million in federal funding to integrate technology into the school curriculum, and an additional $52 million to assist in the turnaround of the district's neediest schools.

Another $104 million will be directed for instruction in high-poverty schools and special-education programs.

But in 2011-12, those federal funds will come to an end.

In addition, the district will face additional expenditures in the millions next fiscal year, including a $13 million increase in pension costs, $40 million more in payments for charters and $35 million more in health benefits.

To offset those higher costs, Masch said the district would apply for federal grants such as Race to the Top and the Teacher Incentive Fund.

Cutting operating costs would also be a priority, he added. And local-level funding, primarily through the city's property taxes, after tapering off due to a sluggish economy, must bounce back.

In the event that cost-cutting measures and other methods of conservation fail, and funding cannot be replaced, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said officials would have to restructure her "Imagine 2014" reform plan.

But Masch added that they won't backpedal.

"We will not have to undo the reforms that took place already," he said. "We will preserve what's already been accomplished. But he added, "Some things we could do a little more modestly."