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Area schools bracing for austere new era

Widespread program cuts and layoffs are expected, along with tax hikes in many districts.

Facing what some see as the most dire funding crisis in decades, school districts across the region are proposing cuts that could drastically reshape their programs and communities.

In district after district, officials have proposed budgets notable for what's missing: busing, kindergarten, athletics, librarians, languages, gym classes.

Thousands of area school employees are likely to lose jobs, even as taxes in their districts rise.

"This is unlike anything we've seen in the last 50 years," said Lou DeVlieger, superintendent of Upper Darby School District, which plans to cut 47 jobs, draw $4 million from reserves, and raise taxes 2.7 percent.

No one is happy. The cuts have rocked teachers' unions and alarmed parents fearful that their children's education will suffer. They also have angered homeowners already buckling under tax bills.

And they have caused some educators to rethink their schools' role in the community. "The days of just tweaking budgets are done," said Stan Wisler, a Montgomery County school official. "We have to do more than that. We have to find new ways of doing business."

The sting has been expected since Gov. Corbett's proposed budget slashed more than $1 billion in education funding. Philadelphia officials, for instance, are grappling with a $629 million shortfall that could cost 3,820 jobs.

Only in recent weeks, as districts have begun to adopt their budgets for the next school year, has the extent of the impact come into focus. In a survey by The Inquirer of districts in Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties, 33 of the 39 that responded said they planned to cut staff - totaling at least 850 positions. All but five said they planned a tax increase. Others expect to eliminate programs or institute activity fees.

In working-class Bristol Township, school officials are weighing a worst-case budget proposal that calls for eliminating kindergarten and Advanced Placement programs, ending elementary art and music, shuttering an alternative school for troubled kids, slicing between 60 and 90 jobs, and imposing a 1.8 percent tax increase.

"No one wants to see it come to this," Superintendent Samuel Lee said. "This is heart-wrenching."

The moves have parents such as Shakira Alford scrambling. Alford had planned to send her 5-year-old daughter to kindergarten this fall.

"With the economy right now, you don't have the money to send your child to a baby-sitter or program full day," she said.

Most districts anticipated tough times after the economy tanked three years ago. Money from the federal stimulus package helped them avoid a crash then.

But it might have just prolonged - or even exacerbated - the impact. Property values didn't rebound. Foreclosures and tax-assessment appeals spiked. Salaries and pension payments kept swelling, amid an uprising against tax bills and teacher contracts. And there is no more stimulus funding.

Few states have been spared. In Los Angeles, as many as 5,000 teachers could get layoff notices this week. In Missouri and Massachusetts, school boards have cut bus service. For the second straight year, New Jersey is contemplating major cuts in education funding. And on Long Island, several towns are bracing for double-digit school tax hikes.

Projected increases in the Philadelphia region average about 2.4 percent, according to The Inquirer's survey. That's about 1 percentage point higher than the state's education-inflation index, which estimates the rise in school costs.

Some districts here remain largely unscathed. For example, Abington, Cheltenham, Pennridge, Rose Tree, and Oxford are poised to pass budgets with no tax increase and few staff changes.

The Boyertown Area School District averted a doomsday budget Thursday when teachers agreed to a 21/2-year wage freeze that will save the district $2.8 million next year.

But even some traditionally stable suburban school systems are struggling.

Downingtown hopes to save $300,000 by eliminating kindergarten busing. Quakertown is closing Haycock Elementary, sending its nearly 115 pupils elsewhere.

Great Valley, Perkiomen Valley, Phoenixville, and Upper Perkiomen are likely to implement activity fees next year. Phoenixville would charge a "pay-to-participate" fee of $25 or $50 for activities including school clubs, theater productions, and sports.

At Central Bucks, which with 21,000 students is one of the largest districts in the region, officials expect to cut freshman athletics, middle school German, busing, and gym classes for vo-tech students. The district also plans to eliminate 121 jobs, twice as many as in the last three years combined, and raise taxes 1.3 percent.

"It's far and away the worst ever," longtime Superintendent N. Robert Laws said.

Teachers in his district have been working under an expired contract for more than a year, and have already accepted a wage freeze. Both sides say that's not enough.

"A change is coming, and I do think it would be wise to manage that change the best we can," said Keith Sinn, a chemistry teacher and head of the 1,300-member education association union. "I think the writing is on the wall for some teachers."

By Friday, administrators in 104 Pennsylvania districts and teachers in 40 had adopted wage freezes for next year, the state school boards association said.

The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the union representing 191,000 teachers and support staffers, has urged members to consider wage freezes, but still predicts between 6,000 and 9,000 members will lose their jobs by fall.

Some say the cuts and changes don't go far enough. One group, the Kitchen Table Patriots in Doylestown, has about 20 members running in school board elections Tuesday, cofounder Ana Puig said. She said the entire system deserved new scrutiny.

"I feel like schools are being run like a government agency, and they need to be run more like the private sector," said Puig, whose children go to Central Bucks schools. "Continuing to raise taxes is not going to be the solution."

Others say they would prefer higher taxes to all the cuts.

"I would gladly pay another $20 or $30 a month if that's what it takes," James Johnson, an Upper Darby fire chief and parent, told his school board during a hearing that drew more than 250 Wednesday night.

The solution isn't that simple. Some officials, particularly in those so-called inner-ring communities that border the city, say their schools are trapped: With no room for growth in already dense communities, they can't count on new tax receipts. And if they raise taxes or slash programs, they risk depressing property values even more by scaring away middle-income families who can afford to move to outer districts that offer lower taxes and more programs.

"You want to make a competitive product, or else I'll have an exodus," said Jennifer Hoff, a school board member in one such district, William Penn in Delaware County. "We don't have a lot to cut. We've never been rich. We don't have multiple languages. We don't have a freshman set of teams."

Instead, Hoff said, the district is likely to eliminate about 50 jobs, end busing for students in grades seven through 12, offer only half-day kindergarten - and still raise taxes.

As bad as it has been, Hoff said, "we think it's going to be worse next year."