Boyertown Stadium, Tax Hike, Superintendent News

Photo by Evan Brandt

SONGBIRDS: Boyertown School Board member Brandon Foose, right, stands with high school students Abby Arnold, Taylor Kuszyk and Sally Fetterman after being recognized by the school board for their performance in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Region V Chorus Festival.

Let's not mince words.

There are three major news stories to come out of last night's Boyertown School Board meeting, but let's cue up to the one everyone really cares about -- the stadium.

Those of you interested in your tax bill and who will lead the district in coming years, will just have to wait and skip down a bit.

The Stadium

Last night the school board voted unanimously for the option most favored by parents of student athletes -- to conduct the fall sports season in the high school's Memorial Stadium using temporary stands and temporary sheds, rather than rent outside facilities or hold them "at a neutral location."

The cost of that decision to taxpayers is $112,233.

The district will buy the sheds and some mobile bleachers to be given other uses once the stadium is repaired.

Some bleachers will be rented and set up on the track on the home side and Facilities Director William Gasper said the company that installed the track said the district's plan for a tarp, then plywood, then 2 X 6 board to distribute the weight of the temporary bleachers and the people sitting on them, should be enough to protect the track.

Parent Elyse Watts thanked the board for the decision, which will allow seniors in fall sports to play in the stadium they have known growing up as the home for Boyertown athletics.

She also noted that the timeline as it stands now looks like it could come awfully close to affecting the fall 2019 season and urged the board to move forward with all deliberate speed and efficiency.

Toward's that end, the school board's facilities committee will conduct a special meeting on Monday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the high school cafeteria devoted entirely to one subject -- the stadium.

The public is encouraged to attend as the format will allow a break-out session that allows the public to speak directly to board members on a less formal face-to-face basis, said Interim Superintendent David Krem.

A New Superintendent?

Not much to report on this one.

After the leading candidate for the job, Juniata County School District Superintendent Keith Yarger, backed out of the job, the school board has gone "back to the drawing board," said Board President Donna Usavage.

She said since that happened, the board met at least four times in closed-door executive session to discuss the continued superintendent search.

Despite the fact that interim schools superintendent David Krem's term expires in June, the board intends to press forward and decide on a replacement for Richard Faidley, who left last year for a job in Wilson School District, before school starts up again in the fall.

"The board will do everything within our power to get that done," she said.

A Tax Hike Cometh

With the expected 6-3 vote, the school board adopted a preliminary final budget last night that calls for spending more than $119 million and would raise taxes by 5.4 percent.

The millage would increase by 1.35 mills under the proposed budget, leading to a tax rate in both the Montgomery and Berks county portions of the district of 25.37 mills.

For a home assessed at $100,000, that represents an increase of $136, which school board member Jill Dennin called "as pretty good deal" for a home with three children on which the district will spend thousands of dollars each year.

She and board member Brandon Foose both noted that the Boyertown district has see-sawed between low tax hikes and higher ones to then make up the difference.

"You can't have it all, a nice stadium, nice fields, nice music programs and have zero tax hikes," said Dennin. "You can have less staff, larger classrooms, or raise taxes to the inflation rate."

But board members Clay Breece, Ruth Dierolf and Christine Neiman, who represented the three votes against adopting the budget, said not enough had been done to cut costs, and said many residents in the district could not afford the increase.

Saying he thought the district has "squandered money," and that the proposed hike represents the largest single increase since 2002, Breece said if the board continues to raise taxes at that rate, "in five years, it will add $680" for the same resident with a home assessed at $100,000. "It really is a matter of math," he said.

Here are a few more comments he offered:


"I know there are constituents who can't afford this," said Neiman.

Board member Steve Elisier, who chairs the finance committee, said the district saved $208,000 by re-financing some bonds, and that there were also significant savings earned through retirements and lower health insurance costs.

The final budget will be adopted and June, and can be reduced between now and then, but not increased.

Also, while we're talking about money, the board voted unanimously to spend up to $250,000 on five new trucks for the district. The average age of a district truck is 17 years.

And now, without further ado, are the many misspelled Tweets from the meeting.

A budget, a stadium and no superintendent

Boyertown Parents Seek Answers to Stadium Woes

Memorial Stadium at Boyertown Area Senior High School is currently closed to the public due to potential structural problems, with the exception of the track team, which uses the two inside lanes to practice.

A standing-room only crowd packed the school board facilities committee meeting Tuesday, filled with people who wanted answers about when repairs will begin on Memorial Stadium.

More specifically, they wanted to know whether it will be repaired in time for the fall sports (football) season.

They didn't get all the answers they sought, largely because those answers don't exist yet, but those that do, they received.

On Feb. 26, the board hired Barry Isett & Assoc. to complete a structural analysis of the stadium and present options for the repairs. That is the same firm that in January reported the stadium may have structural problems and should be closed to the public.

Tom Slowik, the firm's senior forensic engineer, will give an update on progress to the school board at its April 10 meeting, according to a timeline handed out by Facilities Committee Chairman David Lewis. The deadline for presenting final options is the week of April 23.

As things stood Tuesday, those findings will be presented first to the facilities committee at the May 1 meeting, and the full board will vote on a course of action on May 8.

After that, a bid must be prepared and after a month the bids will be opened and work can begin.

The parents who attended thanked the board for what information was prevented and urged them to understand the importance the stadium holds to high school athletes in the community.

The possibility of special meetings to get started sooner, as well as option for night work, were broached.

Athletic Director Nick Palladino said he has several options for the fall sports season, the selection of which will depend on how long the repairs will take.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Boyertown Adopts $115M Preliminary Budget That Raises Taxes 5.4%, Pledges to Bring Increase Down

The Boyertown Area School Board voted 8-1 Tuesday night to adopt a $115 million preliminary budget for the 2018-19 school year that would raise taxes by 5.44 percent.

Even tax hawks Clay Breece, Robert Caso and Ruth Dierolf voted for the plan convinced, evidently by Interim Superintendent David Krem's argument that not adopting the plan would limit flixibility later on.

Board member Christine Neiman cast the only dissenting vote.

"I want to keep all programs, but comes a time in life when something's got to give," she said. "We have to stop spending unnecessarily on stuff, be more fiscally responsible to community."

Breece, Dierolf and Caso had also all indicated their opposition to the plan until Krem spoke.

"Even if you decide to close a school, the state procedure takes 24 months. It would not affect the coming budget," said Krem, arguing for the necessity of the "flexibility" applying for exceptions gives.

Krem was referring to the "exceptions" contained in Act 1 which requires school boards to either adopt a preliminary budget that stays within the state-imposed tax cap, or index, by the end of February; or adopt a resolution pledging to keep within that index in the final budget adoption in June.

Boyertown has adopted that resolution in recent years, but a motion to do so two weeks ago failed on a 5-4 vote, with Caso, Breece, Dierolf and Neiman all voting to stay within the cap.

Under Act 1, if you don't stay within the index, which for Boyertown this year is 2.9 percent, you need to seek voter approval in the spring primary -- unless you seek "exceptions" from the state for a set of prescribed reasons that include pension payments, special education and construction.

In Boyertown's case, they are seeking the special education exception, approved by the board with only Dierolf and Neiman voting no, that allows the spending of up to $1,583,570 above the amount raised by the index.

"The hammer hasn't even dropped yet in terms of what's coming in the next two or three years," said Krem, referring to the pension crisis, urging the board to ensure it has all its options available to deal with the difficult decisions ahead. 

Not adopting the preliminary budget before the February deadline means, "you're basically cutting your own throat," he said.

"Take special education for example," said Krem. "If don't approve this budget, that's $1.5 million you can't claim that your taxpayers will have to make up," he said.

The budget, as it stands now early in the process, has a deficit of nearly $5 million — $4,973,252 to be exact -- according to the agenda.

Raising taxes to the index would reduce the deficit to $3.2 million and adding extra revenue from the exceptions would reduce it further still to $1.6 million.

Residents also supported the board's choice.

GOOD JOB: School Resource Officer Gregory Miller, right,
a former 

Boyertown Police Officer, is congratulated
by Brandon Foose on being 

named Police Liaison
Officer of the Year by the Community Youth 

Aid
Panel of Berks County.

Resident Stephanie Deiterich said regular, manageable increases are like investing in a retirement account, except the beneficiaries over time are the community and the students.

She urged board members to stop using "houses up for sheriff's sale" for non-payment of taxes as a tool to instill fear about the budget. She said her research shows less than 1 percent of the homes in the district are up for tax sale.

John Landio, the board's former president, said some had "duped the community into thinking we can have zero tax hikes, and said the board needs to "work together," noting that The Philadelphia Eagles did not win the Super Bowl as individuals, but as a team.

Lisa Hogan of Gilbertsville said she has four children in school and although she "loves my money," she advocated for increased taxes to preserve the programs and reputation of the school district.

As Finance Committee Chairman Steve Eisler pointed out, it is very early in the process and the figures are likely to change several times before June.

In the interests of maintaining flexibility, Caso and Breece both said they would change their vote. Ultimately, so too did Dierolf. "Let's pass it, get it over with and sharpen the pencils afterward," said Caso.

Caso also criticized the previous board for failing to undertake a year-long budget review and Krem agreed. "when you're doing a budget, you should also be looking two and three years out," he said.

Eisler agreed.

"We need a new CFO, new look, and new ideas. We need new blood," he said. 

Longtime Chief Financial Officer David Szablowski announced his departure in November.

"So much of what we do is mandated, we have so little control of much of our budget," said School Board president Donna Usavage. "What's left is close to the students."

Board member Brandon Foose suggested the board set up a workshop meeting dedicated solely to brainstorming about ways to cut costs and trim the tax hike without cutting programs.

Resident Ruth Baker offered up some suggestions, including using solar power, having energy audits done to sdave on operating costs; cutting the number of vice principals in the high schools and planting trees to shade buildings and cut down on air conditioning costs.

In another matter of interest, the board also voted to spend $16,000 on further study and suggested solutions to structural problems at the Memorial Stadium at Boyertown Area Senior High School.

We'll have more on that in later editions of The Mercury.

In the meantime, here are the Tweets.