A room of full of taxpayers attending a meeting looking for answers about the ominous 2006 school budget, were met with silence, intimidation, and indifference by the Oley Valley School District school board.
The board often criticizes people who ask questions about district spending in June when the budgets are passed. They get a lecture about not being involved in the process sooner.
Last night, the community gets involved in March, and we told it is too early to ask questions about the budget.
The truth of the matter is that the board does not want to answer any questions about this budget.
Bottom line, the citizens of the Oley Valley School District face a 6.46 mill increase in school property taxes!
Those who attended the meeting were shocked by what they saw and heard. They came not believing the flyers posted in the community about the budget. Last night they realize the gravity of the situation.
The next budget meeting is Tuesday, March 21,2006 at 7:00 PM in the Administration Building Boardroom.
Come join us and let your voice be heard. Tell your friends and neighbors.
At the request of people who attended the meeting, the contents of a speech made to the board are being posted for the community to review.
"The Budget and Finance meeting held on February 27th revealed the most outlandish spending requests in recent memory. The district wants to increase spending by $2,797,901.
This wish list is not state or federally mandated, but rather a compilation of previous board decisions whose bill has come due.
The enormous budget request will be portrayed as critical to education, but a review suggests otherwise.
Adding more staff when school enrollment is down, new TV's, new cafeteria chairs because the current ones "pinch the posterior", New Television Studio equipment, new wireless connections in addition to existing land line connections, a new athletic trainer, a new scoreboard, a litany of new technology increases....the list goes on and on.
The individual making the technology request said " The board has created a monster.." when they engaged on the spending spree for technology.
Replacing unusable equipment is one thing, having the latest toy is another.
It gets worse, we discover that the $2,797,901 does not include the cost of a new track.
The new track costs have escalated from $350,000 to nearly a $1,400,000 facility, due to a $39,000 architect recommendation.
The supporters of this non-educational expenditure promised to provide at least half the cost. According to published reports, no funds have been received from this group to date.
A board member even said in the paper, taxes would not rise because of the track. Nonsense, the money will probably come from the Capital Reserve Fund, which was created with tax dollars. If the money is spent on the track, the Capital Reserve Fund will be replenished with new tax dollars.
We can't even tap the Capital Projects Fund of $1,200,000 to defray the 2006 capital spending because of a lingering lawsuit concerning the Middle School.
Based on the district's estimated revenues, the board cannot even pay for the new teachers contract, much less anything else.
The $2,797,901 budget request and the $1,400,000 facility are the district numbers presented to the public.
Adding the two figures, the total bill could be $4,197,901 of additional spending which represents a 6.46 mill increase!
When the board was asked at the budget meeting, " How are we going to fund over four million dollars of spending with only a half million of revenues? ", the board did not respond.
A potential 6.46 mill increase or anything close to that amount deserves honesty and candor from the board.
If they not agree with these numbers what are the numbers?
Saying it is too early to make predictions is absurd. How can you negotiate a teachers contract and give administrative pays increases without knowing your 2006 budget
We want answers now, not the day the budget is passed."
