All hands on deck in RTM budget talks
I t is that time of year in the Rose Tree Media School District. The preliminary budget is in, and the red numbers are screaming off the page. The initial whack at a spending plan for next year calls for a couple of things district residents have grown accustomed to in this fairly wellto-do bedroom community that includes Media Borough, Upper Providence, Middletown and Edgmont townships.
Spending is up, topping out at $98.2 million dollars. That’s a $7.2 million increase over last year. As you might expect, something else is going up as well. Taxes. The district’s budget calls for a 3.5 percent increase in taxes. Of course, the state Act 1 Index limits the district to a 2.5 percent boost, so the district plans to seek another 1 percent through exceptions, which allow them to enact an increase more than the law calls for without putting it before voters in a referendum.
They are not alone in doing this. Many districts do the same smoke and mirrors act with the numbers
But Rose Tree Media is doing something other districts do not.
Actually, they’re taking a page from Upper Darby School District.
No, they are not dipping into their fund reserves to give taxpayers a reprieve from these annual tax hikes. At least not yet. That’s what Upper Darby did this year.
But Rose Tree Media is doing something Upper Darby tried a few years back, when residents were up in arms after proposed cuts threatened the district’s cherished arts and music programs.
Rose Tree Media is enlisting the folks at the Penn Project for Civic Engagement to hold a series of public hearings focusing on school spending, and possible ways to alleviate the pain for district property owners.
The first one was held Saturday. More than 60 people showed up. That’s good. Three additional hearings were held on consecutive days.
Rose Tree Media has a small but very vocal number of budgetary hawks, who lord over the bottom line and constantly badger the board about spending.
That is not necessarily a bad thing.
Neither is this style of getting the community involved in the budget process.
Those who attended the Saturday session were broken up into smaller groups and were given several budget options, including cutting costs and services or raising taxes. All told participants were given more than 30 possible budget actions and were asked to categorize them from those easily addressed to those that could be described as “gut wrenching” and finally those labeled “now way, no how.”
If you’ve ever wanted to be a school board member, this was your chance.
The result? It’s not as easy as it looks. And the numbers don’t necessarily change. Most of those in attendance came away with the same bottom line as that contained in the district’s preliminary spending plan: Taxes would be going up.
Residents also suggested dipping into the district’s reserves, slapping fees on those students who participate in sports.
What taxpayers did not want to see is cuts in district staffing that they viewed as damaging the education offered to Rose Tree Media students. Those included any cuts to kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school core subjects, world languages, guidance and pupil health services.
One mother sounded a familiar tune.
“I’m not in favor of anything that affects students,” she said. She followed that up with an admission that might not be unanimous, but certainly was on the mind of those in attendance: “I’m willing to pay higher taxes to support them.”
Another woman voiced concern that property values in the district could decline should Penncrest High School suddenly slash electives such as music and art.
Rose Tree Media has the luxury of a stable tax base and a fairly high household income. If it’s difficult to make the numbers add up here, you can only imagine the challenge facing less wealthy districts such as William Penn and Southeast Delco.
The results of the four sessions held in Rose Tree Media will be formulated into a report that will be delivered to the school board and Superintendent Jim Wigo by mid-March.
We congratulate Rose Tree Media for this push to be transparent and engage the community.
When it comes to balancing the bottom line while not damaging the education offered to district residents, it’s clearly time for all hands on deck.
Other districts should do the