ORWIGSBURG — The Blue Mountain school board Thursday approved the preliminary budget for the upcoming school year, with a dozen staff position eliminations and teacher furloughs recommended due to declining enrollment.
The budget, voted on by the board at a virtual meeting, includes $44,475,952 in revenue and $45,320,544 in expenditures, and a tax increase of 1.857 mills to 41.258 mills. The impact of the budget on the average assessed home wasn’t available. There will be a hearing and final adoption at the June 18 board meeting.
At the meeting, board members agreed to recommend eliminating 12 district positions. They include an elementary gifted teacher; districtwide English as a Second Language teacher; Blue Mountain Elementary East emotional support teacher; Blue Mountain Middle School learning support teacher; Blue Mountain High School learning support teacher; Blue Mountain High School learning support and English teacher; Blue Mountain Elementary West first-grade teacher; Blue Mountain Elementary Cressona fourth-grade teacher; Blue Mountain Middle School science teacher; Blue Mountain Middle School English/language arts teacher; Blue Mountain High School English teacher; and Blue Mountain Elementary East third-grade teacher.
Superintendent David Helsel said before the vote that one learning support teacher had resigned before the recommendation and the position won’t be filled.
In addition, board members voted 8-1 to recommend furloughing three teachers districtwide, impacting high school English, first and second grade. Board Vice President Scott Reichert cast the lone dissenting vote. Those voting in favor of the furloughs were board President Anne Usuka, Treasurer David Lafko and board members John Carestia, Herman Fligge, Dean Gherghel, Timothy Grube and Krista Strause. The recommendations are based on declining enrollment. Helsel said the furloughs are not final. Each impacted employee will be provided written notice of the decision and an opportunity to address the board.
Usuka said prior to voting that she hoped the district’s enrollment situation “will allow us to bring (the teachers) back.”
In addition to votes on staff eliminations and furloughs, board members agreed to create four new positions of a districtwide elementary gifted and English as a Second Language teacher, part-time art teacher at Blue Mountain High School, emotional support teacher at Blue Mountain High School and Blue Mountain Elementary Cressona third-grade teacher.
Helsel said at the meeting that the staffing changes were made in response to changing enrollment trends and that the decisions were “made carefully.” He added that the decisions will not impact class sizes, noting they will be “satisfactory.”
During the meeting, several members of the public asked about enrollment and the staffing changes. Helsel said there was “a significant” enrollment reduction at Blue Mountain Middle School, with the school losing 13% of students. There are 587 students enrolled there, he added. In addition, Helsel said there was an 8.7% student population decline at Blue Mountain Elementary East. Gwen Witmer-Belding, the district’s director of elementary and secondary education, said the average elementary class size ranges from 20 to 25 students.
Districtwide, Helsel said three students are enrolled in English as a Second Language classes and there are between 26 and 27 students in the elementary gifted program, necessitating the staffing recommendations for those areas.
Helsel said with more Blue Mountain High School students enrolled at the Schuylkill Technology Center, some courses there have seen a decline in student enrollment. He said there are 80 students enrolled at STC.
In other business, board members approved renaming Lafko as the board’s treasurer for the upcoming school year, effective from July 1 to June 30, 2021, with the district providing him with a $10,000 bond.
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