Allentown school director says no more spending on conferences and dinners

When the Allentown School Board approved a controversial $10 million loan in the spring to avert a financial crisis, director Ce-Ce Gerlach pledged to vote against any future spending on conferences and dinners for board members.

Months later, Gerlach, who voted for the loan, is still holding to that promise. At Thursday’s meeting, she voted against spending more than $2,000 to send directors Phoebe Harris and Lisa Conover to a Pennsylvania School Boards Association conference in Hershey next month. Gerlach was the only director out of the nine to vote against the conference, so Harris and Conover will attend. The costs cover registration, hotel rooms and meals.

It’s common for school directors and administrators to attend conferences for professional development in-state and even out-of-state, and the district has spent money for Gerlach to attend conferences in previous years. After the meeting, Gerlach said her vote wasn’t personal toward Harris and Conover; she just wants the cash-strapped district to reign in its spending.

“We are broke,” she said. “We don’t have money to waste.”

In the spring, the district discovered its 2018-19 budget was almost $8 million in the hole because administrators spent more on salaries than was budgeted. In a narrow 5-4 vote, the board decided to take out a $10 million loan to cover that deficit. Conover, Harris, Robert E. Smith and Cheryl Johnson Watts voted against the loan.

But the district still had to deal with the 2019-20 budget, which initially was $21 million in the red. After making internal cuts and raising taxes by 1.75%, Allentown asked 23 charter schools to take a 10% tuition reduction to close the last $6 million deficit in the budget. The board passed a $341.8 million budget contingent on charters taking that tuition cut.

But charter schools have not agreed. Last month, the charter schools jointly sent a letter to the district telling it to “live within its means.”

That means the district still needs to figure out how to come up with that $6 million, although district officials have previously said there is enough money to meet financial obligations until the spring.

Gerlach, who is running for City Council, said she will continue to vote against administrators and directors attending conferences for the remainder of her time on the board. She suggested that the district partner with a foundation to cover some costs of conferences so taxpayers don’t have to foot the entire bill.

“I don’t think it’s wise for us as a district to spend money going to conferences when there’s people choosing between buying medication or bills who have to pay for that,” she said.