Another PA school can't make payroll: York, Pa

[DebJ]

York City may not have a public school system after April...........
If not April, there seems to be no way for another school year next year.

I keep hearing on the news how Pennsylvania will play a critical role in the Presidential election this year.
So when I saw Sara Ferguson from Chester-Upland School District at the State of the Union address, I
thought of that. (And a big shout-out to Ellen Degeneris today for re-publicizing this and giving the district
$100,000).

Our problems in Pennsylvania are ongoing. Can we keep this in the forefront of the media? Can someone
tell me how to contact Rachel, and or Chris Matthews who is from Pennsylvania, to get them to keep airing
this over and over again? York will only be the second school; there are others to come. Before the election,
Pennsylvanians need to clearly hear what Romney's plan would be; let them hear him celebrate our pain.

Is Pennsylvania's governor playing the role for education issues that Wisconsin's governor has played
for unions? Is Pennsylvania the educational scape goat for implementing the Republican Party goal
of completely privatizing public education? They have been drooling about the possibility of putting more
public money in private hands since at least....when...wasn't it Reagan? If this is not stopped by the pressure
of national media, a continuing pressure, they are going to get what they want: no public education at all.

After cutting Pennsylvania's state contributions to education by nearly $1 BILLION last year,
the word is Governor Corbett plans further cuts next year. He will be giving his budget proposal on February 7th.
It would be fantastic if Chris and/or Rachel covered his new proposals and interviewed citizens in cities that are
suffering and now incredibly upset.

York City Schools will completely fold next year if not in the next 2 months; the projected deficit for 2012-2013
is $19 million (with $8 million of that from Corbett's cuts last year). Their only stated solutions for the shorter-term
payroll issue right now is to borrow against taxes to be collected for next year's expenses, which will only increase
next year's deficit which is already impossible.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: the news article says teachers may not be paid in April, but other sources say March will also be a problem.

Article here:
http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_19868597
www.ydr.com/local/ci_19868597

1)This article focuses on the teachers' union not agreeing to a paycut.
What the teachers' refused to approve was not a paycut, but re-opening the entire contract.
This contract was just approved last year, one full year late, and for many months of the
negotiating period, the school board refused to have any conversations at all regarding the negotiations.
Re-opening the contract would bring everything back to the table once again. Likely including
such gems as having students do the teachers' evaluations, and certainly other forms of compensation,
such as benefits (in other words, much much more than 3.89%)

IMPORTANTLY: there was not even a hint of assurance that the proposed payroll cut would have
been utilized to actually help pay teacher's salaries (as opposed to say, the charter school tab).
The proposed payroll cut was projected to cover $1.2 million; freezing of 'cost center' expenses $2.2
milion, and 25 furloughs in February $448,000, for a total of $3.8 million of the $8 million needed.
In other words, the district still would be short $4,000,000.

2) The amount of the proposed paycut is phrased deceptively. The cuts were to be retroactive
to the first of the year, which would have resulted in the loss the equivalent of almost one entire
paycheck by the end of the payroll year, which is the end of August (teachers are paid
bi-weekly throughout the year).

3) The article does not mention the major causes of this $8 million dollar shortage.
a)This shortage is almost exactly the amount that the Governor cut from state payments to the school district.
b) Although this shortage was spelled out in a letter posted to the school website at the beginning of the year,
a letter requesting the state to restore funding, now the district is explaining the shortage in a completely different way:

1. Charter schools: $5.2 milion dollar deficit:
a. Increase in tuition rates I THOUGHT CHARTERS GOT THE SAME PER-PUPIL $ AS PUBLIC SCHOOLS. WHO APPROVED THIS?
b. Increase in cyber charter enrollment (it doubled) THE EXACT INCREASE IN PUPILS OR COST IS NOT PROVIDED.
c. Increase in one charter school enrollment by 200 students
d. An oversight in the budget: leaving out one charter school entirely WE HAVE FIVE CHARTERS, HOW DO YOU FORGET ONE?

2. Unemployment compensation: 1.8 million deficit
(Note: In the summer of 2010, York City furloughed one in four teachers. Also, some positions had been elimated in 2009.)
The district budgeted only $225,000 for this but the actual costs will be $2,000,000.

(THIS IS INEXCUSABLE. They had the names and salaries of every person furloughed. Put them in a spreadsheet and multiply that by whatever factor the state requires... I am sure the state doesn't keep that a secret. And why wasn't this figure calculated, checked and double-checked BEFORE the furloughs were done in the summer of 2011?)

3. Carry-over deficit of $1 million

Regarding the 'errors' in the budget: the accountant who was paid to prepare this budget vanished in October, with a $20,000+ payment for doing so. Apparently our school board did not read the budget. How do so many people not note that an entire charter school was not included?

Also: the school district just hired one additional assistant superintendent (overhead) at a $100,000 salary and to boot, with a
signing bonus of $23,000. When someone made an inquiry as to why that was done, the response was: "It was in the budget".
What, so teacher salaries were not????

Also of note: the district is paying $250,000 a year this year and next to a Superintendent that served one year of a three
year contract. They hired her with the condition that she would be guaranteed full-payment regardless of any factors
like performance. After one year, they booted her out. So now they are paying for two Superintendents at a rate of $250,000
per year. SO IN OTHER WORDS, PERFORMANCE IS IRRELEVANT FOR ADMINISTRATORS. This last one was even asked
to NOT show up at work at all, and hey, enjoy your pay!

[gopiscrap]

1. Fuck this

defund the military....

[Snake Alchemist]

2. Nationalize them!

Decrease the pay of the administrators and pay the teachers.

[DebJ]

3. Also, unlike Chester-Uplands, the only way

employees and teachers will be able to retain their medical benefits is to pay for them
out of their zero income / zero cash flow. In Chester-Upland, they retained their
medical benefits by working without receiving the salary.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Pure insanity

Just unreal.

[DCKit]

5. The inmates have taken over the asylum.

What will it take to get the people of PA to wake up and realize that the Republicons don't want their children to get an education?

[DebJ]

6. Yup, but they DO want them to pay for an education in a manner

that insures profits for corporate execs. Some of our charters are for-profits.

[DCKit]

7. Yeah, I was going to go there, but most parents cant afford that. nt

[PA Democrat]

8. Corbett is a whore.

Almost every one of Corbett's policies are based upon who bought him off during his campaign. He did it with the natural gas drillers (PA is the only state that does not charge an extraction tax.)

And he is doing it with his education policies. His education transition team was stacked with owners of private charter schools and advocates of school vouchers. Consider his proposed cuts to public schools in his 2011 budget:

In some instances, cuts to poor districts are ten times as high as cuts to more affluent districts, according to an analysis done by the Education Law Center. For example, the Steelton-Highspire School District, with a poverty rate of 68.2%, would get $1,139 less from the state per student, or $28,477 less for a class of 25. Meanwhile, Derry Township, with a poverty rate of 12.3%, would only see $121 in cuts per student from the state. So what is Corbett’s real agenda?

Curiously enough, Delaware County, home to the Chester Community Charter School, the largest charter school in Pennsylvania, is only seeing $100 in cuts per student. Even more curious is that Vahan Gureghian, CEO of the Chester Community Charter School, was the largest campaign contributor on Tom Corbett’s transition team, having given him $334,286 over the past three years. Speaking of charter schools, Corbett is starting a school voucher program for students living in failing school districts that is expected to cost $1 billion over the next three years. Shockingly, funds to the 144 school districts targeted for the voucher program were cut twice as much on average per student then other school districts.

And this is where the pieces start to fall into place. Corbett’s plan is to use Pennsylvania’s “budget crisis” to suck money out of the traditional public school system and funnel it to his wealthy campaign contributors in the charter school business. And if the quality of education for tens of thousands of poor children continues to slip, so be it. When will voters realize that unless they are the one paying their bills and buying their allegiance, Republicans do not care about them, or their kids, and they never will?

http://www.alan.com/2011/03/30/tom-corbett-crushes-the-poor-and-rewards-campaign-donor-with-education-budget/

[DebJ]

9. One freakin billion for vouchers? n/t