No more middle school. Goodbye freshman and J.V. sports. Close a school; slash the music programs.
The blade was about to fall this month on all this and more at the Quakertown Community School District. But at the last minute, something extraordinary happened: Teachers and other employees agreed to $700,000 worth of contract concessions to blunt the ax.
Those givebacks - highly unusual in the often rancorous world of union-administration relations - speak to a deepening crisis in school finances that is rippling across the country.
As are other districts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Quakertown is having its first full encounter with the economic downturn that has been battering businesses and pocketbooks nationwide.
Facing slumping revenue, falling real estate values, and swelling pressure from residents to hold down taxes in an unsettled economic climate, the districts have been at it since the first of the year, in some cases even earlier. The operative tools have been the ax and the vise.
"This year is like no other that I have seen," said Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials. "There are no good options for developing your budget in this environment."
An upshot is that the property-tax increases that will go into effect tomorrow will be the lowest on average in at least five years for districts in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties. Several are keeping rates the same or cutting them.
Philadelphia schools might fare better than their suburban counterparts, since the bulk of their funding comes from state and federal sources. Dozens of new initiatives would be paid for in large part by federal stimulus dollars.
But in the suburbs, where local taxes pay most of the bills, districts are cutting staffs, programs, and extracurricular activities, and some are wondering whether the savings to taxpayers is worth the potential cost to children.
Taxpayers are stressed, too. Haycock Township resident Helen Kondracki, a retiree, told the Quakertown board at a June meeting that the district could not afford all the things parents want for their children. She added: "Speaking of the ability to pay, 32 percent of my income goes to pay taxes. I'm maxed out."
School boards are paying attention. In the next fiscal year, only 13 area districts' tax increases will go above the state's legal inflation caps. Last year, 23 districts went over it.
Final budget figures aren't yet available for New Jersey, home of some of the highest property taxes - and some of the most frustrated taxpayers - in the nation, but the circumstances aren't much different.
"We're all in the same boat," said John F. Donahue, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials. The Cherry Hill district, for example, is cutting more than 60 jobs.
On both sides of the river, falling real estate values have been a major concern.
In Pennsylvania, many districts - especially those in Bucks County - are looking at multimillion-dollar declines in tax revenue, after years of steady growth in real estate, income, and other tax revenues in an era when property values and incomes increased steadily.
As school officials began to build their spending plans against such bleak conditions, they were faced with having to make sweeping cuts. At least four Bucks districts - Neshaminy, Pennsbury, Quakertown, and Central Bucks - reduced staffing by 40 or more, mostly by not filling open slots, but with some layoffs. Support staff was hit the hardest, but some teachers and administrators were also eliminated.
In three districts, sharper cuts or higher taxes were avoided when teachers agreed to renegotiate existing contracts. Along with those in Quakertown, teachers in Council Rock in Bucks County and Twin Valley in Chester County reduced or deferred wage increases and changed benefits. Pennsbury teachers extended their contract a year, with no new wage increases. School administrators in several districts also took wage cuts.
"We want to maintain the educational excellence; we want to maintain the program and staff - that's everyone's first priority," said Mariann McKee, the president of the Council Rock Educational Association. The concessions, she said, send the message that "teachers are reasonable. Teachers are responsive to the needs of their community."
At least six districts - Bensalem, Central Bucks, Coatesville, Council Rock, Pennsbury, and West Chester - took $2 million or more each from their "savings accounts," putting money from the prior year's fund balance into their budgets to keep from raising taxes or cutting programs even more.
Not all districts are in financial stress.
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