Bethlehem Area School District eyes tax increase

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Bethlehem Area School District administrators hope to use exceptions to the state cap on annual property tax hikes to tackle neglected maintenance and buy buses and computers.

In January, the school board approved a $210.8 million preliminary budget for the 2012-13 school year that would raise taxes by 4 percent and cut 11.9 teaching positions due to declining enrollment.

At a budget workshop tonight, Superintendent Joseph Roy gave the board a $2.5 million wish list of spending that could raise the 4 percent hike to about 5.8 percent.

To get there, Bethlehem would have to use all of its available exceptions for its debt service, retirement and special education costs, to exceed its 2.1 percent state cap on annual tax increases. The state has not yet approved Bethlehem's application.

After the meeting, Roy said he wants to use the exceptions and it is up to the board to decide where to land between 4 percent and 5.8 percent. Directors were asked to come to the March workshop with targets.

Director Aurea Ortiz tonight implored the board to go beyond 4 percent, saying she doesn't know where else the board could cut. The current budget hiked taxes by 1.7 percent and cut 8 percent of the district's work force through layoffs and attrition.

The $2.5 million would create a cushion for spiking retirement costs, address $1 million in maintenance and buy buses and computers. But it doesn't restore any of the middle school team teaching cut last year or expand full day kindergarten.

School board members tonight asked Roy to find ways to expand the district's full day kindergarten offerings to compete with charter schools. Bethlehem's charter school costs have steadily climbed in recent years to $11 million with the elimination of state charter school reimbursement.

"We have lost roughly a thousand students over the last five years," Roy said, adding projections show a similar loss in the next five years.

Roy believes this corresponds with charter school enrollments, something Director Irene Follweiler asked him to research.

The district only offers six sections of full day kindergarten for at-risk students. But full day kindergarten is in high demand in the Valley. The Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School has 100 seats and a growing 296-student waiting list for its full day program next year.

A full day kindergarten would cost the district $1.3 million, or the district could take a scaled back approach with a lottery, Roy said. Offering one full day program per elementary building would cost $544,441 while combining two neighboring schools for full day kindergarten would cost $276,676.

To bring back team teaching just in sixth grade would cost the district $470,095.

Parent Marie Brown said the teaming cuts are being felt and she's noticed a marked difference in her experiences with her sixth grade son and her daughter, who is now a freshman. She urged the board to bring teaming back in the future and if it is not possible next year to rethink the middle school schedule.

Team teaching cuts resulted in changes to student schedules that cut class time but lengthened lunch and homeroom, Brown said.

"I want to see more time spent in the classroom," she said.

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