COAL TOWNSHIP - Shamokin Area School Board voted to furlough 21 teachers and staff members, starting next school year, at its meeting Thursday night.
The raucous crowd, asked by a board member at one point, "Where do we start?" in further reducing a multimillion-dollar deficit, one reply was, "At the top!"
It seems, indeed, that is where the board will now focus its attention.
Tuesday night's regular monthly meeting has been canceled in favor of a closed-door meeting with Superintendent James Zack, business manager Stephen Curran and all administrators under the Act 93 employment agreement, which was approved for a five-year extension that began in 2011, but that now appears open for negotiation.
"We have to take baby steps at this point, but it's something that is going to be discussed," board President Tracey Witmer said Friday.
Possible changes mentioned in private discussions include asking administrators to pay one percent of their salary toward health care (their premiums are currently covered in full), forgoing raises and eliminating a medical stipend. One administrator position was cut in Thursday's action, the person moved to a teaching position, and more cuts are possible, Witmer said.
"There's no telling how much we can save, because we have no idea what the administrators will agree to," she said.
Witmer was the lone vote against the Act 93 extension when voted on in October 2010. Taking effect July 1 of last year, it gave administrators and those in support staff administrative positions a five-percent raise in the first two school years, a four-percent raise for 2013-14 and a three percent raise in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Administrators also received fully paid health, vision and dental benefits and a $4,000 stipend each year for any vision and dental expenses not covered by insurance.
"That is one thing that I have been complaining about all these years. Every month I look at the bills list and see administrators getting reimbursed," Witmer said. "There are a lot of people who don't have insurance and it's not fair."
While the raises amounted to more than $200,000 total, board members who voted in favor of the agreement - including current members LaRue Beck, Edward Griffiths and Brian Persing - said it was offset by a $500,000 savings in health insurance when the district went from a fully-insured plan from Capital Blue Cross to a self-insured plan administered by the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit. They also said the administrators deserved the raise for improved state test scores.
There were 11 administrators under the Act 93 agreement when it was extended, including elementary principal Mary Teresa Komara, high school principal Chris Venna, assistant principals, maintenance supervisor David Petrovich and others. Zack and Curran have contracts separate from the Act 93 agreement, but receive the same increases and benefits as the other administrators.
Asked Friday if he is willing to talk with the board members about his contract, Zack said, "They have the ability to look into it, and if both parties are agreeable, they can reopen the contract to make changes.
"In these tough budget times, all things are open for discussion," he added.
Ruby Michetti was part of the Act 93 agreement at the time, too, but she was demoted as part of Thursday's action to a middle school teaching position.
Witmer said more administrative cuts are possible.
"We are looking at everything," she said. "There might be one to three more administrative positions lost, in addition to Ruby."
This, or else
On Thursday, the board voted to furlough 19 teachers, effectively eliminating music, art, and physical education as stand-alone programs on the elementary and middle school levels. The kindergarten program was also eliminated, but re-established within 30 minutes when the board shifted the program's budget from the general fund to the budget for Title I federal funding, the same move done to save the K-4 program last year.
Board member Bernie Sosnoskie said Thursday's meeting and the decisions that were made shook him up, but these and future cuts are needed to keep the district from state control.
"We need to pass a balanced budget, or else the state will come in and take control of the district," Sosnoskie said.
The furloughs and other cost-saving measures have cut about $3 million total from Shamokin's 2012-2013 budget, but a $2 million deficit remains.
"These cuts have to come across the board and come from the top down," Sosnoskie said. "When I ran for school board last year, I said I was going to work for the kids and try to do a fair job. We knew this budget was going to be a problem, but we have to work together to balance it."