$65.7M Pottstown School Budget Won't Raise Taxes

The Pottstown School Board backed away from the idea of a tax hike in the midst of a public health and economic crisis, voting unanimously to adopt a preliminary budget for the coming fiscal year that does not raise taxes.

The $65,721,174 million spending plan for the 2020-2021 school year filled the gap between spending and revenues with a deep dive into its reserves, pulling a total of $1.7 million from its various back-up funds.

"We did what we've always planned to do, we have reserve funds for a rainy day, and clearly, today is a rainy day," said board member John Armato.

Under the state's Act 1 tax cap, Pottstown was limited to a tax increase of 3.8 percent, which as recently as last month was the tax hike being considered.

Even with the tax hike, the previous budget draft called for pulling nearly $1 million out of reserves.

However, the full board reconsidered after both Armato and board member Thomas Hylton, who heads the board's finance committee, both argued against it.

Reaction on social media to the idea was also near universally negative, particularly in the wake of the board's decision to give Business Manager Maureen Jampo a new three-year contract that raised her pay by 33 percent over three years.

Pottstown revenue losses as forecast by PASBO

As The Mercury reported earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Association of School Business
Officers is forecasting a brutal drop in local school district revenues across the entire state.

The latest figures forecast Pottstown losing between $1.9 and $2.2 million depending on how quickly the economy rebounds.

And that's on top of the crumbling property assessment foundation on which Pottstown's budget rests.

Property assessment challenges continue to hobble the district's budget. In the past year, total borough property values have dropped by more than $2 million, cutting $105,000 in revenues out of the budget before Jampo even sharpened her pencil.

A dwindling tax base is one thing Pennsylvania's ironically named fair funding formula is supposed to compensate for. But because just a tiny fraction of the state's educating funding is actually calculated using that formula, Pottstown schools are short-changed by more than $13 million in state funding every year.

Advocating to convince the legislature to "fully fund" its own fair funding formula is the only way to avoid tax hikes in coming years, warned Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez, who is also the president of the Pennsylvania League of Urban Schools.

"The only way we can not raise taxes in the coming year is advocacy," said Rodriguez. He noted that 50 people were attending the live-streamed digital meeting and it would be in their best interest to get involved.

"The legislators always tell us that the 150,000 cyber school students call all the time, but the 1.5 million public school families do not," Rodriguez said. "They need to hear from us. We have to stop being the silent majority."

Otherwise, "if you don't help us out," Rodriguez told the audience, "we're going to come to a crossroads where we have to decide" between a tax hike and cutting programs and staff.

That's one thing Armato said he is not interesting in considering.

"There is a lot of uncertainty in our future," Armato said. "But now we need to look to 2021-2022. We did what I believe to be the wise thing, we prevented a tax increase while maintaining all programs and staff."

However, Armato warned, "everything I'm hearing says the worst of the storm has not come yet and I am not interested in a tax increase in 2021-2022 or cuts to the school program or staff, and that's a big challenge."

It will be a challenge made even more difficult by the big unanswered question of Pennsylvania's state budget.

Board member Bonita Barnhill said the legislature is still trying to figure out how to re-open the state safely, and is considering two budgets. "One would only go through December and the other would be a traditional fiscal year budget," she said. "We have to stay on top of this."

Pottstown School Board Eyes 3.8% Tax Increase

A screenshot from last night's Pottstown School Board online meeting.

The face of Business Manager Maureen Jampo appears in
the top right corner of this slide showing the financial
impact quarter percentile tax hikes would have
on the 2020-2021 Pottstown schools budget.

Current plans for the $65.8 million 2020-2021 Pottstown Schools budget call for a 3.8 percent tax
hike.

The tax hike, the maximum allowed by the state cap, would help close a projected budget shortfall of $1,138,808, according to a presentation made by Business Manager Maureen Jampo at last night's online school board meeting.

In addition to the tax hike, the budget plan call for pulling an additional $991,000 out of reserves to balance the budget.

Jampo said the borough lost another $2.2 million in assessed property value in the past year, vacuuming $105,000 in revenues from the next budget before calculations even began.

The coronavirus has pandemic has also thrown a monkey wrench into the district's budget plans.

Current projections call for earned income tax revenues to be down by $220,000 over the current year.

Maureen Jampo delivers an updated budget scenario.

Further, anticipating that cratering state tax revenues are likely to result in all state aid remaining flat, Jampo removed another $144,846 from basic education subsidy of the draft budget; as well as another $86,300 from the special education subsidy line.

On the up side, some costs which have dropped due to the March 13 closure of all Pennsylvania public schools have allowed the district to re-purpose some budget lines to purchase additional Chromebook computers for students who don't have them.

That removed those costs from next year's budget, cutting another $85,000 in anticipated costs.

A list of costs cut from the draft 2020-2021 school budget.

The school closure will also create additional reserves for the capital projects budget and PSERS retirement budget fund.

The latest budget draft also drops the 3 percent salary hike for administrators and support staff planned for next year by a percentage point, thus saving another $264,000.

The latest draft also delays a science curriculum adoption, saving $150,000, and a re-allocation of special education costs that will also help to reduce the coming year's tuition payments to charter schools.

The board also voted to move forward with a re-financing of three years' worth of bonds from 2013, 2015 and 2017 worth $13.5 million that are projected to save the district $200,000.

Board member Thomas Hylton's face appears over a slide
showing state Act 1 tax caps over the last five years.

With those savings, and what he called "a very healthy fund balance," board member Thomas Hylton, who now heads the school board's budget and facilities committee, questioned whether the full tax hike is necessary.

In February, Hylton had said he had no plans to vote for a tax hike, but anticipated, correctly it seemed at the time, that the other board members were willing to support the 3.8 percent tax hike. He therefore proposed refraining from wasting administrators' time by crafting budget scenarios that would be moot in the end.

But the arrival of a viral pandemic has resulted in quite a few additional budget calculations in the administrative offices.

Hylton said is less sanguine about a tax hike now. "We had a good economy then. but we're headed into a world-wide depression that is unprecedented, and you want to take a poor town and add another $1.1 million in taxes on them?"

The last five budgets.

As it so often does in Pottstown, the budget discussion also touched rather heavily upon Pennsylvania's unbalanced education funding system, which this year will underfund Pottstown schools of more than $13.8 million.

"That money is going to other districts that have no problem with their budgets," said board member Raymond Rose.

Those districts are  "saying let's build a stadium and we're agonizing on spending $100,000 in a $65 million budget. Our community and our children are getting short-changed by the state," he said.

"Now is not the time to let up on advocating for fair funding," said Rose, who suggested people interested in joining the fight visit the Advocates for Pottstown Education Facebook page for an on-line meeting about how to advocate for fairer funding.

Raise for Jampo

Although the mid-level administrators and support staff will see smaller raises in the coming school year, the same cannot be said for Business Manager Maureen Jampo.

Thursday night, the school board unanimously adopted a three-year contract for Jampo with provides a 16 percent pay hike in the first year and a 33 percent hike in pay over the course of its three-year term.

According to the terms laid out by School District Solicitor Stephen Kalis prior to the vote, Jampo will see her salary rise by $20,000 in the coming year to $140,000, in addition to another $20,000 being deposited into a retirement account.

In the 2021-2022 school year, Jampo's salary will jump by another $10,000 to $150,000 and another $22,000 into the retirement account.

Last night's school board meeting happened online.

The third year of the contract will being her salary to $160,000 with another $24,000 into the
retirement account.

Jampo was hired in 2017 at a salary of $105,000, according to the terms of her previous contract, which is posted on the school district website. By the time the new contract expires in 2022-2023, Jampo will have seen her salary increase by more than 50 percent in seven years.

The new contract got the full-throated support of Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez, who said when she was first hired, she was the lowest paid chief financial officer of any district in the area and, when this contract expires "she will still be one of the lowest paid business administrators in the county."

He praised Jampo's grasp of district finances and her ability to find cost savings and shift money to needed areas with a minimum impact on the budget.

"I'm glad she's staying. She could have found another job in another district and be making much more money than she will here," Rodriguez said. "But like me, she believes in our mission, our cause and out town."

"I come from this town and I am sensitive to the bottom line," said Board Vice President Katina Bearden. "I'm so glad we have her."

Charter Funding Reform

The school board also unanimously adopted a resolution Thursday night calling on the state legislature to enact reform for how charter schools are funded.

The resolution notes that "53 percent of all students in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are educated in underfunded districts which demonstrates the fact that Pottstown students are not alone in the disparities of educational resources throughout the Commonwealth."

"The current charter school funding formula was established in 1997 under the state's Charter School Law and has not been changed in the 23 years since it was first created; and the formula for regular education programs is unfair because it is based on a school district's expenditures and not what it actually costs to educate a child in the charter school," the resolution also notes.

Further, "13 out of 14 cyber charter schools are listed as failing schools in the Commonwealth and no cyber charter school excels in academic performance as listed on the future ready index; and whereas, the latest data from the PA Department of Education shows that in 2017-18, total charter school tuition payments (cyber and brick-and-mortar) were more than $1.8 billion, with $519 million of that total paid by districts for tuition to cyber charter schools," the resolution says.

"The costs of charter schools for school districts continue to grow significantly each year; and on a statewide basis are the most identified source of pressure on school district budgets," the resolution states.

Last year, a study released by Temple University Center on Regional Politics titled "A Tale of Haves and Have-Nots," cited charter school tuition costs as  a factor that is pushing 60 percent of public school districts toward fiscal distress.

"Charter school tuition is the second largest increase of any of the major expenditure categories, second only to salaries, and more than PSERS (Public School Employee Retirement System), health care and 'other,'" according to the report. "One out of every five district taxpayer dollar increases will be used to pay charter school tuition."

"We want to remind the legislators that this is still very much on our minds," said Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez, who is also the president of the Pennsylvania League of Urban Schools and has championed charter school reform for the past year.

"It is another major draw on our budget over which we have no control," he said.

Pottstown Gets Early Look and Listen to 'Seussical'

Photos by Evan Brandt

During Thursday night's meeting, student performers gave the Pottstown School Board, and those lucky enough to be in the audience, a preview of the district-wide musical 'Seussical.'

It's that time of year again folks.

That time of year when intrepid producer Robert Decker, who teaches math at the high school as his day job, brings a passel of student performers to a school board meeting to give us our first peek at what this year's musical is shaping up to look and sound like.

It would be hard to top last year's triumphant musical, "Hairspray," but by gum they're sure going to try.

And if this video is any indication, they're going to give it a run for the money:


Show times are as follows:

• Friday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.
• Saturday, Feb. 29 at 2 p.m.
• Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m.
• Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m. (Special sensory performance for special needs audience)
• Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m.
• Saturday, March 2 at 2 p.m.

Advance tickets can be purchased online by clicking here.

Tickets for the sensory-friendly show on March 5 can be purchased online by clicking here.

Tickets can also be purchased at the Pottstown High School office with cash or check for $8. Tickets purchased at the door on the night of the show are $10.

The dark red areas on this map of Montgomery County, which includes two Census tracts in Pottstown and one in Royersford, area areas that had a more than 25 percent undercount in previous Census.

Answer the Census People!

Tricia Reedy Jones, a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, told the school board Thursday night that between March 12 and 20 we will receive our first notice from the Census Bureau, asking us to fill out the brief questionnaire online.

Richard Herr, a Census recruiter, holds a sign
with information for those looking for a job.

Reminders will come in the mail from March 26 to April 3. From April 8 to April 16, a reminder letter and a paper questionnaire will arrive to the homes of those who have not yet answered the Census online.

After April 27, in-person workers will knock on the doors of those who have not yet answered.

And if you want to be one of those workers, they are paying $27 per hour and need a total of 4,000 in these parts. They are still hiring said Richard Herr, a 2020 U.S. Census recruiting assistant in Montgomery County.

You can apply online by clicking here.

Jones told the board that an under-count will cost Montgomery County money.

An under-count of 5% will cost Montgomery County $72 million a year in federal funding for the next 10 years. And Pottstown is one area of the county that has traditionally performer poorly in the answering-the-Census arena.

That because its population has a high proportion of hard-to-count demographics like children, homeless, immigrants, language-constrained and low-income and renters.

She said contrary to some concerns, the data is encrypted and confidential to only the Census bureau and not shared with any other government agency. There is no citizenship question on the Census.

The Census also determines new Congressional districts, so failing to answer it will also diminish our voice in Washington.

A Budget Deficit of $2.6 Million

The full school board heard a report from board member Thomas Hylton, the new chairman of the finance and facilities committee, who reported on discussions from the Feb. 13 meeting.

(You can watch a video of that meeting by clicking here.)

He said Business Manager Maureen Jampo gave a presentation on a $66.7 million preliminary budget that shows a deficit of $2.6 million.

(You can check out the full presentation for yourself by clicking here.)

Part of that deficit is driven by rising charter school tuition costs, something Jampo briefed Pennsylvania Education Secretary Pedro Rivera about during his visit last week.

According to her presentation, Pottstown's charter school tuition costs have risen 44 percent in just

two years, from $2.5 million to $3.2 million

(You can check our her full presentation by clicking here.)

Another part of that deficit is driven by the $2.5 million in assessed real estate value the borough lost in 2019, resulting in a loss of revenue to the school district of $104,694 at the current millage of 41.96 mills.

If that millage is raised by the maximum allowed under the state's Act 1 index for Pottstown -- 3.8 percent -- it would mean a millage of 43.56 mills.

Even doing that, and using $291,000 from reserves, the district would still face a shortfall of $1.5 million.

Hylton, who has never voted for a budget with a tax hike and made clear he has no intention to start, nevertheless told the committee, and then the full board, that he realizes that position is not held by the majority of the board.

To ease the work load on the district's admittedly thin administrative staff, Hylton said the committee agreed that rather than have the staff put together a broad variety of alternatives, that it should assume the board majority is willing to raise taxes to the state maximum of 3.8 percent.

That way, it can focus on finding ways to close a budget gap of the $1.5 million that remains after a tax hike, than to try to close the entire $2.5 million gap.

There is still much more work to be done on the budget, which does not have to be adopted until the end of June, and those numbers will no doubt fluctuate as the weeks pass and more accurate and updated information is received.

And with that, click here to read the Tweets from last night's meeting.

Pottstown Teachers Spur Growth, District-wide 'Seussical' Musical Will Accommodate Special Needs

Photos by Evan Brandt

SINGING THEIR PRAISES: The Pottstown High School Chorus performed two pieces Thursday for the school board in recognition of School Board Appreciation Month.

As veterans of school board meetings know too well, January is "School Board Appreciation Month," and true to form, each of the Pottstown School Board members got a little gift from the staff, a bag of candy in this case.

But the students provided an even sweeter gift, an a cappella vocal performance.

Normally, this is where I would write "Here is the video of one of the performances:" but Periscope didn't save it to my iPhone because I had to download a new operating system, because "technology, blah, blah, blah. So no video for you, which is too bad because they sounded lovely.

On with the blog.

Teachers Growing Test Scores

Pottstown teachers who have overseen classes with three years of consistent growth in standardized test scores are recognized Thursday by the Pottstown School Board.

But since the ultimate purpose of the school board is to educate students, perhaps it was appropriate that School Board Appreciation Month was the month the school board got to show its appreciation for those doing that job well.

Seventeen Pottstown teachers were recognized Thursday night for teaching students who have demonstrated persistent growth in test scores.

"Growth," Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez explained, is different and in many ways better than "achievement."

For years, standardized tests in Pennsylvania only recognized achievement, a student's final score. If you think of those tests as a race, the achievement is your final time. Growth is your ability to run faster. You may not win the race, but if you have doubled your speed, that is growth.

Further, said Rodriguez, many educational experts now agree that achievement on standardized tests is more a measure of a community's wealth, than its skill at teaching.

Without naming them, Rodriguez said a comparison with some neighboring school districts showed that while their test scores may be higher, the growth in Pottstown's scores far outstrips them.

By way of example, he noted that Pottstown High School has seen 100 percent growth, the highest level the state measures, in its math, reading and biology scores.

Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez, left, and School Board

President Amy Francis, right, congratulate Jesse Tupper

for her "Great Growth" Award Thursday.

Those Rodriguez was willing to name were some of the teachers who have made that growth possible. 17 of them to be exact.

Four of those had students whose scores had shown growth over the course of a year.

They are:

• Carol Livington, middle school language arts;
• Jesse Tupper, middle school math;
• Paul Castanzo, high school biology and
• Nicholas Fox, high school algebra.

Perhaps more impressive are those who have overseen three solid years of growth in test scores, and the fact that there are 13 of those. They are:

• Nicola Alutious, Barth Elementary School;
• Bradley Mayberry, Barth Elementary School;
• Ann Marie McDonnell, Barth Elementary School;
• Denise Schleicher, Lincoln Elementary School;
• Joshua Wagner, Lincoln Elementary School;
• Mandy Wampole, Lincoln Elementary School; 
• Ginger Angelo, middle school;
• Jennifer Heller, middle school;
• Aaron Torrence, middle school;
• Eileen Basham, high school;
• Helen Bowers, high school;
• Justine Donnelly, high school;
• Megan Heffelfinger, high school.

"The growth really is amazing," said school board member Steve Kline.

Congratulations to all and thanks for the great work.

A More Sensitive 'Seussical' to be Staged March 5

There are few who would argue that the beloved Dr. Seuss books help sensitize children to the feelings of others, and the a world beyond their own experience. (My personal favorite is 'The Sneeches.')

So why shouldn't the musical, 'Seussical," which is based on those books, practice what it preaches? It should, Robert Decker told the school board Thursday.

Superintendent Stephen

Rodriguez had the right spirit.

That's why, for the first time in the region as far as he could find out, Decker told the board that this year's district-wide musical will have a special added performance on March 5 specially designed for a special needs audience, including the hearing impaired and those on the autism scale.

Too often, said Decker, who is the show's producer and teaches advanced math classes in the high school, he has heard parents of children on the autism scale say they cannot take their children out to eat, or to shows because "they can't sit still," or "they have to get up and walk around," of "they want to talk back to the actors."

The March 5 show will allow all that and more.

The show will be relaxed with keyboards instead of a full orchestra, cutting down on loud noises. The lighting will be left low and audience members will be encouraged "to get up and dance, to sing, all of the things they are not allowed to do in a traditional performance setting," Decker said.

"We want them to be able to partake in things some of us take for granted," Decker said.

And with that, click here to read the Tweets from the meeting.

Board Mulls Turning Edgewood into Kingergarten Center, Moving 5th Grade Out of Middle School

The former Edgewood Elementary School.

Having held off on any decision to turn the former Edgewood Elementary School into a fifth grade center, and removing that class from the middle school, the school board is considering a different option.

Last night, Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez made a presentation to the full school board that mirrored one made to the facilities and finance committee on Oct. 3.

The idea is to consider turning Edgewood into a kindergarten center. That would create enough space in the elementary schools to allow fifth grade students to stay in their home elementary school for another year before moving to the middle school.

Since the fifth grade was moved into the middle school in 2014, making it the largest school population-wise, parents, teachers and students have complained about behavior problems and bullying.

When bullets ripped through a West Street home one March evening in an incident connected to what police and school leaders say is a long-running dispute among eighth graders, the discussion reached a whole new level.

But even before that, the district was already deep into an exploration of moving the fifth grade to the former Edgewood school, which was closed in 2014 after Pottstown's other four elementary schools were expanded.

The process included a series of town hall-style meetings hosted at the building where the pros and

Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez at an 

Edgewood town hall in February

cons of the move were discussed. Looming large was a price tag of more than $6 million to get the building back into shape.

The building is currently occupied by two education tenants, a Head Start program and an alternative education program called Cottage 7 Academy.

But last year, the school board put the breaks on the exploration, saying it was not ready to make the decision.

During the Oct. 3 facilities committee meeting, Rodriquez said the idea is not a new one, but at the time it was first considered, it was quickly obvious that Edgewood does not have space for both the kindergarten and Pottstown's growing pre-K presence. 

The building has 14 regular classrooms and Pottstown has 12 kindergarten classes. So there is no way to fit both kindergarten and pre-K in the building without expanding it, an even greater expense. Accordingly, it was discarded.

But since the board shelved discussion of turning Edgewood into a fifth grade center, the problems at

Town hall attendees toured Edgewood classrooms in February.

the middle school have remained. "The object here is to move the fifth grade back into elementary school," Facilities Committee Chairman Kurt Heidel made clear.

Rodriguez said the administration still wants to talk to the teachers, conduct a "listening tour" with parents and speak to those who use the North End Early Learning Center opposite Franklin Elementary, once used as an administrative annex but increasing used to house pre-K classes.

That building started out with one pre-K classroom and is now home to 90 pre-K students, Rodriguez said. He said because the pre-K program is spread among so many partners and so many buildings, it is sustainable without including it in the Edgewood building.

"This is not to say that moving the fifth grade into Edgewood is off the table," said Rodriguez. "This is just another option."

And like all options, it has benefits and concerns.

As outlined by Rodriguez, the benefits include:

• Addresses the main concern of too many students at PMS 
• Addresses some concern of a 5th grade center not being as popular or sustainable 
• Alleviates some Spec. Ed. and LRE Requirements associated with 5th grade 
• Allows for flexible grouping with some of our most vulnerable students 
• No or less special education concerns 
• Less reconfiguration required at Edgewood 
• Much more common model throughout the commonwealth and more sustainable.

The concerns he outlined include the following:

• Cost-This will require significant investment in the building and require a hefty bond purchase 
• Bussing- the affected bussing areas will remain the same, but the age is young to be on the bus independently.
• 10 teachers from PMS to Elementary bldgs rather than 12 
• The unknowns…. 

Rodriguez said there will be three public meetings on Edgewood kindergarten center idea.

The meetings will be Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6:30 at Rupert; Monday, Oct. 28 at 3:30 at Barth; Friday, Nov. 8 at 9 a.m. at the administration building on Beech Street.

Things to keep in mind include:

• No matter what, Edgewood will need repairs. There is no scenario where we keep Edgewood,

  

  Rodriguez reviews basement repairs needed
  at Edgewood during one of the building tours
  in February.

  but don’t repair it.
• Resale value has been considered, but the deferred maintenance and limited use options also drives down the market value, making a sale scenario far MORE expensive, than including the property as a part of the solution.

There is also the matter of the tenants. Rodriguez said as leases with the current tenants expire, the possibility that the school make take the building back has to be taken into consideration when negotiating new leases.

Under the timeline Rodriguez outlined last night, the board would have to make a decision by March of 2020. If the decision is to make the change, the new kindergarten center would open in August of 20201.

Bond Re-Financing

The other item of interest from last night, which also occurred during the first five minutes, meaning I missed it, is a bond re-financing that could save the district between $300,000 and $500,000.

The bond is from 2017 and still has $9.915 million on it.

Jamie Schlesinger, from PFM Financial Advisors LLC explained to the board that the current interest rate on the bond is 2.55 percent but in eight years will re-set to a variable rate as high as 4.5 percent.

He said the better option is to lock in a lower interest rate now, while they are at historic lows, for the life of the bond. "We won't do it if you won't save money," he said, explaining that because of the variable rate, the actual savings will not be known until the bond is fully paid off.

As a result, the motion the board passed Thursday night is to set "parameters" for the bond sale.

Because of the structure of the bond, the savings will be realized over the life of the payments instead of in one lump sum, as often happens with re-financing.

And with that, it's late and I am putting the head to bed.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Close to the Edge(wood)

Pottstown OKs 3-Year $1 Million Pact With Teachers

With a unanimous vote Thursday night, the Pottstown School Board approved a three-year contract with the teachers union that will add just over $1 million to the budget over the course of the contract.

The Federation of Pottstown teachers voted in favor of the contract on Tuesday, said School District Solicitor Stephen Kalis.

No increases to the pay scale are included in the first and third years of the contract, instead putting more money in teachers pockets by moving them up one step on the existing pay scale, Kalis explained.

In the second year of the contract, increased pay rates are included in the salary steps, but not uniform increases, said Business Manager Maureen Jampo.

Also during the second year of the contract, teachers will also see a move forward in the steps, but not until half the school year has passed.

The higher pay scale and forward step motion averages out to a 2.13 percent pay hike in the contract's second year, said Jampo.

Robert Decker, a high school math teacher who spoke Thursday on behalf of the Federation, said like in the previous contract negotiation "a lot of work was put into more evenly distributing the increases across the scales."

What he means is that in the contract's second year, the pay scale increases are tilted in favor of newer teachers who will see their pay increase more quickly than in the past when many of the larger gains were enjoyed by those with more years of service at the higher pay scales.

One reason both sides of the negotiating table pursued this goal is the high teacher turnover the district has seen in recent years, years in which Pottstown was reported to have the lowest average teacher salary in Montgomery County.

That, combined with a teacher shortage as fewer and fewer college graduates opt to pursue a career in education, has resulted in many Pottstown teachers being lured away to higher-paying districts.

On the same day this contract was approved, USA Today reported passage of a bill in Illinois to raise the minimum teacher pay to $40,000 by 2023, in part to addresses a shortage of teachers in that state.

State law requires Pennsylvania school districts to pay teachers at least $18,500 a year — a rate that hasn’t been updated in 30 years.

In June, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported "the average teacher in Pennsylvania earned $67,535 per year during the 2017-2018 school year, according to a PA Post analysis of Department of Education data. But some 3,200 teachers, mostly in rural districts and small cities, make less than $45,000 annually, according to the Department of Education."

In 2017, the average Pottstown teacher salary was just over $58,000.

"In his February budget address, (Gov. Tom) Wolf called for a one-time, $14 million allocation to bring the teacher pay floor to $45,000 per year. Of the 500 districts statewide, 180 would receive subsidies under Wolf’s plan to give raises to teachers currently making less than that," the Capital-Star reported.

The proposal was not adopted by the state legislature in the final budget.

Low pay is one of the factors contributing the fewer students choosing teaching as a career. 

Last month, the Observer-Reporter newspaper reported that "since 2009, the number of newly issued in-state instructional teaching certificates has dropped by 71 percent, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education."

"Pennsylvania used to issue licenses to more than 14,000 new teachers annually. In 2016-17, the state issued 4,412," reporter Karen Mansfield wrote.  

Last summer, the Pennsylvania Department of Education awarded about $2 million in grants to eight universities to develop and implement yearlong residency programs for teachers and principals, in order to increase and retain teachers and school leaders, according to the newspaper report.

Last week, Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said the district hired 44 new teachers for the school year that starts Monday, which he said is "one of the largest freshman classes" in district history.

"If an organization is to grow, it has to be stable, consistent and focused," Decker said during his remarks to the school board. "This year we have one of the largest group of new teachers we've ever seen. When employees feel valued, it reduces the endless cycle of hiring and training."

Contract Specifics

Jampo said the overall financial impact of the new teacher contract on the budget is $1,030,000 over three years.

In the first year of the pact, which begins with the first day of school Monday, the financial impact is $272,000. In the second year, the fiscal impact is $300,000 and rises to $447,000 in the third and final year.

Kalis said the hourly rate for non-instructional duties, but not including extra curricular activities, was raised from $29 to $30, the first time it has been raised in 12 years, said Decker.

The contract also raises from $40 to $50 per day the amount that retiring teachers get paid for unused sick days. That is the first time that rate has been raised in 25 years, Decker said. The maximum number of days that can be claimed remains at 300 days.

The contract also contains a retirement incentive that offers a $5,500 premium in the contract's first
year and in the second and third year would deposit a lump sum of $25,000 in a retirement account, a measure which Kalis said saves taxpayers $30,000 per teacher.

Medical insurance remains essentially the same, with teachers contributing 20 percent of the premium and 5 percent of the prescription premium, with no co-pay. However the contract does add a program that allows teachers to buy more medicine in bulk from on-line companies, but will cost teachers more, said Decker.

Teachers who get their health insurance through a spouse will be paid 25 percent of what their premium would have been had they taken on the district's lowest cost health plan, said Kalis.

The contract expires on Aug. 31, 2022.

Feedback and Transparency in Pottstown Schools

Last month, the Pottstown School District asked folks to take a survey about their efforts, their successes and where they could do better.

Last night, Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez gave a brief overview of the results, which will be posted shortly on the district website, if they are not there already.

The purpose of the 30-question survey was "to learn more about current perceptions of the district and our communication efforts. We want to determine how we can improve our communication and interaction with key stakeholders," Rodriguez said when the survey was released.

Among the more interesting results, was the fact that most of those who responded were satisfied with the district's early education offerings "but that seems to fall off in the secondary level, which is something we're going to have to work on," Rodriguez told the board.

He was saddened, Rodriguez said, to find that many in the survey do not believe their tax dollars are spent appropriately, although they also strongly approve of the district's advocacy efforts to fully implement the fair funding formula which would add more than $13 million to the district's bottom line each year.

To Stream or Not to Stream

ON another matter that has been brewing with the school board for some months is the question of live-streaming committee meetings on Facebook.

The irony of the fact that some board members were resisting the idea of live-streaming a committee meeting when the very board meeting at which the discussion was itself being live-streamed on Facebook was not lost on all.

Further irony could be found in the fact that having just digested the results of a survey meant to bolster communication with the public, a survey in which their constituents reported that they want more information about the operations of the school district, some members continue to resist doing just that.

Raymond Rose argued that the public deserves transparency from the board.

Kurt Heidel argued that many of those who come to (and watch the livestream of) full board meetings feel confused because the discussion has all occurred at the committees and the votes occur without discussion. "They tell me it seems like we've all made up our minds beforehand," he said.

John Armato, who in addition to being a school board member is also its unpaid director of community relations, took up these theme with a vengeance.

"We ask those people every year for $40 million; they entrust us with about 3,200 of their young people. Tonight we just voted on 16 items by consent and no one watching knows how we reached those decisions," Armato said. "I feel very deeply that we owe them this transparency."

Susan Lawrence said talk at committee meetings is very open and non-structured, including from parents and teachers who attend, but some might not feel as free to speak their minds if they knew the meeting was being live-streamed.

Kim Stilwell took another tack, saying despite the fact that the issue first came up in a public relations committee meeting; and was discussed by the full board at their July workshop meeting, that "not everyone has had their say."

This patently ridiculous claim was based on the fact that the issue had never officially appeared on a committee meeting agenda. "I believe strongly in the committee system," said Stilwell.

Well, she got what she wanted. 

With Community Relations Committee Chairwoman Katina Bearden saying she supports the move, but only wants the board to do its "due diligence" in adopting rules for the livestreams, the matter was tabled to her committee for further discussion.

Heidel, who chairs the Finance and Facilities Committee, said he will put the matter on his committee's agenda as well and pursue live-streaming that committee, even if the board ultimately decides against livestreaming the others.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Surveys and Live-Streams

5-1 Vote Pushes Pottstown School Taxes Up by 3.3%

Photos by John Armato

The Pottstown High School Air Force JROTC Unit was presented with a "distinguished unit" citation for the 18th consecutive year Thursday night. 

Pictured above with unit members are Lt. Col. James Porter, left, and School Board President Amy Francis, center.

At right, Francis adds the distinguished unit ribbon is added to the unit flag.

With three members absent, the Pottstown School Board mustered the bare minimum of votes Thursday to pass a 2019-2020 budget that will raise taxes for the average property owner by $111.

Board member Thomas Hylton cast the only vote against the budget, although board members John Armato, Bonita Barnhill and Board President Amy Francis all indicated their yes vote was cast "reluctantly."

Board member Kurt Heidel said because he only won the Republican ballot line in the May 21 primary, and is thus unlikely to win reelection, he did not want to vote for a budget his replacement would have to live with, but Board Solicitor Stephen Kalis informed him he had to vote and could not "pass."

With Vice President Katina Bearden and board members Susan Lawrence and Kim Stilwell all absent, Heidel's failure to vote would have meant only four affirmative votes and budget passage, by law, requires five.

Business Manager Maureen Jampo said in March, the budget had a $1.2 million deficit and little had changed by June, when the deficit had been whittled down to $1 million. 

That's about how much will be raised by increasing property taxes by 3.3 percent, the maximum allowed by the state this year for Pottstown.

That's the same state that adopted a fair school funding formula in 2016 that it refuses to fully implement. Were it in place, Pottstown would be getting an additional $13 million a year from Harrisburg and the painful decisions being faced now would disappear.

In fact, said Armato, were the fair funding formula fully implemented, the average property tax bill would drop by $370.

In case you missed the rally, Pottstown NAACP 

member Bobby Watson snapped this picture of

1,000 protesters in the Capitol rotunda June 12.

But the formula is not fully implemented, he said, "because the politicians in Harrisburg lack the moral and ethical resolve and will to make it happen. They're more worried about getting reelected."

For years, Pottstown has been advocating, with increasing volume and increasing public support, for the full implementation of the fair funding formula, which makes up for a low tax base, the poverty of the students and other financially limiting factors.

Last week, activists, board members and the public filled three school buses for a rally in Harrisburg, mounting what is in all likelihood the largest number of voices that day to come from a school district of five square miles.

Armato said the striking increase in educator pensions that is hobbling school budgets across the Commonwealth is the result "one one reason and one reason only: poor management by Harrisburg, and now Pottstown taxpayers have to solve Harrisburg's problem."

If the trend continues, he warned, more and more cuts will have to be made to balance a budget made worse by a state known nationwide as the worst for funding gaps between poor and wealthy districts.

"A lot of people are mad and they should be mad. We can't get to success by cutting. I'm going to vote for this budget, but only reluctantly," Armato said.

"It's really important that people are aware of this," said board member Bonita Barnhill, who noted six board members made it to the fair funding rally.

"If we don't speak up, nothing will change. We have to keep shouting from the rooftops or our children will not get what they need," Barnhill said.

Board member Raymond Rose, who brought his two sons to the June 12 rally, urged Pottstown voters to visit the Advocates for Pottstown Schools Facebook page, where "action items" are posted on a regular basis to keep up public pressure on enacting the Fair Funding Formula.

"We are going to have to force the lawmakers to do this," said Rose. "We have power."

And with that, here are the Tweets from Thursday's meeting:

A Reluctant Budget & No Edgewood Decision

Pottstown School Board Puts Off Edgewood Decision

Evan Brandt File Photo

The question of whether the former Edgewood Elementary School will become a Fifth Grade Center has been put off for another school year by the Pottstown School Board.

When the time came for a decision Thursday night, the majority of the Pottstown School Board (or at least those who were present) said they are not ready yet.

Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said if the board is truly ready to decide to open the former Edgewood Elementary School as a fifth grade center in the 2020-2021 school year, the decision needed to be made last night.

"You can't tell me in August, because that will be too late," he said.

Battered by complaints about behavior and bullying in the middle school, the board and administration have been bandying about the possibility of opening the former Edgewood Elementary School building as a fifth grade center as a way to extract the younger students from the middle school environment.

File photo

Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez and Business

Manager Maureen Jampo during the first Edgewood Town Hall meeting.

Edgewood was closed in 2015 and the four remaining elementary schools renovated and expanded, made possible by the decision to move the fifth grade into the middle school, which had the space but perhaps not the temperament.

As the bullying complaints mounted -- making a media splash in March when shots were fired into a West Street home, allegedly as the result of an ongoing dispute among eighth grade girls -- the district offered up several options.

In 2018, one idea floated by Rose was year-round school for middle school students, but a district-wide survey found very little community support for the idea.

In it's place, the administration floated the idea of moving the fifth grade out of the middle school and into Edgewood.

A series of "town hall" type meetings were held and there seemed to be support for the idea, despite its $6 million price tag.

Having just passed a budget minutes earlier that will raise property taxes by $111 for the average homeowner (more on that in tomorrow's post), it's not a price the board majority present is ready to pay.

Other options considered by the school board

With Vice President Katina Bearden and members Susan Lawrence and Kim Stillwell absent, the board indicated the only member present was ready to press ahead -- Raymond Rose.

"We've talked about it ad nauseam and my instinct is to go ahead with the fifth grade center," said Rose. "It's the best option to move forward. We have to think about the good of our students over the money issue."

Board members John Armato and Bonita Barnhill both said they disagreed with the decision to turn the middle school into a grade 5-8 school when it was made.

Calling it "ill-conceived," Armato said nevertheless, "it's what we have now. And given that we still haven't answered the question of where does the money come from, I'm not prepared to say open the doors in 2021.

Board member Kurt Heidel, who only secured the Republican line in the May 21 primary and said he is a long shot to win reelection, said he was unwilling to make a decision that other board members would have to deal with.

"I'm not in favor of moving forward," said Barnhill. "We just raised taxes 3.3 percent, and the Legislature is not taking action on fair funding. How much more can we strap the public?" she asked.

"I thought it was a bad decision to put them into the middle school, but at this point I can't see us jumping into another fire," Barnhill said.

"I can't believe we're even considering it," said board member Thomas Hylton, who first proposed the grade alignment at the middle school as a way to save money and reduce the cost of renovating five elementary schools. 

It's estimated Edgeood would need $6 million worth of work to 

be used as a fifth grade center.

"We just raised taxes to the max," Hylton said of the budget vote on which he provided the only no vote. "Now we want to spend another $6 million?"

School Board President Amy Francis said while she favors using Edgewood as a fifth grade center, "I can't imagine moving forward with anything that talks about spending that kind of money right now."

"We just had hundreds of propel turn out just because we were talking about eliminating one position, " she said. "I don't want our community to have to deal with that ten-fold"

We'll have a report on the passage of the $64.3 million 2019-2020 budget in tomorrow's blog. In the meantime, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

A Reluctant Budget & No Edgewood Decision

Protesters Are a No Show for Anti-Bullying Rally

The big story from last night's school board meeting is what didn't happen.

A "peaceful anti-bullying protest" announced last month on the front page of The Mercury in the wake of a West Street home being riddled with bullets did not happen.

A post on the Band Against Bullying Facebook page by rally organizer Monique Basile 90 minutes before the scheduled start indicated that the rain forecast for the evening was the cause for the cancellation.

Monique Basile organized a Band Against Bully protest at Thursday
night's school board meeting that didn't happen. She has posted on
the group's Facebook page that a rally planned for Sunday in
Smith Family Plaza will still go on as scheduled.

It also indicated that she would nevertheless be at the meeting "speaking up, and introducing our proposal contract. This contract I am asking to be imposed, will be an entry contract. One that every student and parent from elementary school up will have to sign... It will become a school standard and be part of their code of conduct... We can still show up in numbers and take a stand but it will be a quiet protest indoors."

But that didn't happen either.

The Band against Bullying rally on scheduled for Sunday, April 28, will still go on, according to the Facebook posts.

The rally, which will be held at Smith Family Plaza next to Pottstown Borough Hall, is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

(UPDATE: Basile posted at 5 a.m. that her children were sick and she forgot her phone in the rush to get to the doctor. "They both said the fruit tasted funny and their bellies hurt after... Took them both to the doctor and forgot my phone in such a rush to figure out what was wrong with them.... I am so sorry, however I have just sent an email to all members of the board with the contract and my proposal... Being a single mom, finding balance is life is no easy feat... Please accept my apologies for letting you down yesterday.")
No doubt, the WFMZ news crew that showed up Thursday expecting a protest were a bit disappointed.

As a consolation prize, they got to interview school board member John Armato, who is also the school district's unpaid director of community relations.

Although there were some community members in the audience, not one person stepped up to speak to the school board or express their concerns about the much-mentioned bullying problem in the middle school.

But the some school board members were not so silent.

"Our youth need adults telling them we need them," said Vice President Katina Bearden, who has helped to organize the popular Mother/Son and Father/Daughter Dances.

"They live in a culture of mixed mental issues, but most people in Pottstown are good and this rash of violence is not just in Pottstown, but all across the world. It is not unique to our area," she said.

"We are not accustomed to having such violence," she added, urging people to attend the community meeting scheduled by the Pottstown Police Department on May 2 at 7 p.m. in Borough Hall, as much "to let the police know we support them" as to get answers about the recent shootings.

"WFMZ was not here tonight to hear about the mother/son dance, or about the Foundation for Pottstown Education," board member Kurt Heidel said. "We know why they were here, and we need to get the good stuff out there too."

"It's a shame they were not here with their camera's for Rock the Block," said board member Bonita Barnhill. "Everyone was pitching in, it was a real sense of community."

But as former Sen. Claire McCaskill once said, "TV loves a ruckus."

But the ruckus was March 24, when the home of a Pottstown Middle School eighth grader who her mother says was the subject of constant bullying was riddled with bullets.

Police captured two suspects in the shooting, Makael Bevins, 19, and Ahnile Fountain, 19 on April 9 and the court records describe a "feud" between two groups that had resulted in several fights. One group was comprised of three girls, including Bevin's sister, and the other group, four adults and one juvenile girl.

Police also responded to a dispute in front of the house where the shooting occurred between these two factions. The Samba family, whose house was shot up, has engaged a lawyer and said it is considering suing the school district.

Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez discusses
the pros and cons of re-opening Edgewood during a town hall
meeting there in February.

All this occurs in the context of the school district very publicly exploring the option of moving the fifth grade out of the middle school to a re-opened Edgewood school while insisting no decision has been made, even though no other option is publicly acknowledged to be on the table.

If Edgewood is to be re-opened, the decision, which comes with a price tag as high as $6.5 million, has to be made by June, now barely two months away.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

No Protest, Just Another School Board Meeting