More talk, same bottom line on school budgets
n the always contentious discussion concerning the Rose Tree Media School District budget, officials this year decided to take a different route.
Didn’t much matter. They still wound up in the same place. Taxes are going up. That should not belittle the process. It just underscores the difficult every school district faces balancing their books these days.
When their preliminary budget arrived with a thud back in February – with both spending and taxes going up – the Rose Tree Media School Board did not circle the wagons. Instead they circled the desks. They decided to open up the discussion on school spending, something they’ve taken heat about for a long time from a vociferous group of local numbers crunchers.
Actually, they were taking a page from the Upper Darby School District. Still shaken over the outrage sparked in the community by a proposal for serious cuts – including the district’s much-beloved music and arts programs – a few years back, Upper Darby officials reached out for help. They brought in the Penn Project for Civic Engagement to hold a series of public hearings focused on school taxes.
This year it was Rose Tree Media’s turn.
The idea was two-fold, with the district looking to create some goodwill in terms of how tax dollars are spent, and perhaps a few ideas on how the district could save money.
What happened next was enlightening. More than 60 people attended the first session, the majority of them parents of Rose Tree Media students, and the overwhelming sentiment was against drastic cuts that would affect the quality of education RTM has become known for.
Last week the school board, after digesting the comments from the nearly 500 residents who attended the hearings, came back with a familiar tune. Their proposed final budget of $95.9 million dollars includes a tax hike of nearly 3 percent. It will cost the average homeowner about an additional $173.
Actually, the district was limited by the state’s Act 1 to an increase of 2.5 percent – aside from putting the increase to voters in a public referendum - but tacked on another .48 by way of a retirement referendum exception. It’s the first time the board asked for an exception since the 2008-09 school budget. They also skimmed off $5 million from their fund reserves to balance the budget, which at one point left them staring at a deficit of $9.5 million. The district still has another $3.5 million in reserve.
Even at that, two school directors voted against the spending plan.
Rose Tree Media certainly is not alone in this battle.
Just down the road a stretch, Garnet Valley residents also will be digging a bit deeper to pay their school tax bills. For most residents, taxes will go up 2.4 percent.
On the other side of the county, Upper Darby once again is looking at a tax hike in their final spending plan, one year after swallowing hard and draining off much of their reserves to avoid increasing taxes. At the time, the school board stressed this was likely a one-year deal. They were true to their word.
In the meantime, meaningful changes in terms of school funding, as well as the elephant in the room when it comes to school district spending – ballooning pension fund payouts – continue to elude state legislators.
And this is in two of the county’s more well-to-do school districts. If things are this tough in Penncrest and Garnet Valley, pity the poor folks in places like William Penn and Southeast Delco, where a diminished tax bases leaves little other place to go for revenue aside from homeowners.
We still think what Upper Darby and Rose Tree Media did in terms of opening a real dialog with their residents was a valuable exercise. If nothing else, they found out that, aside from what they usually hear – people complaining about spending and taxes – there is also a sizeable chunk of residents who continue to pride themselves on a district’s quality of education – and are willing to pay for it.
That likely will not soothe senior citizens and others on fixed incomes, or those who no longer have children or grandchildren in the district, and who each year struggle to pay their school tax bill.
At least school board members are willing to listen to residents’ concerns.
We’re not sure the same can be said of our illustrious representatives in Harrisburg.