Apollo-Ridge Schools Faces Budget Deficit
While Armstrong School District will have a special meeting at 6:30PM Thursday to review their preliminary budget, another County school district also faces possible difficult funding decisions.
Apollo-Ridge School District board directors may have to make some difficult choices next month as their budget deficit sits at $1.6 million for the 2012-13 school year. School directors have not ruled out any possiblities, but are discussing a one-mill tax increase.
by Jonathan Weaver
Another Armstrong County school district is battling to balance their annual budget.
Apollo-Ridge School District board directors currently have to deal with a $1.6 million 2012-13 budget. School directors heard updated figures from Board Secretary Richard Day at their committee discussion meeting last night.
Day announced that most financial figures have remained consistent with those presented in the past, but will not have to pay a health insurance rate increase. Directors may also see the return of Accountability Block Grant funding.
While the school district is projecting nearly $19.8 million in revenue next year, they also project almost $21.5 million in expenditures, creating a $1.6 million budget deficit. An additional $2.3 million is committed to contend with increasing health insurance and retirement benefit costs, with $200,000 also entered into budgetary reserve.
Title 1 funding is expected to be cut.
One way school directors are looking to balance the budget is by adopting a one-mill tax increase, something Apollo-Ridge has not done since 2008.
Board Secretary Richard Day makes additional comments on the 2012-13 preliminary budget, including the good news that State grant funding might resume and health insurance rates are not expected to rise.
One local resident – who wished to remain anonymous – was concerned with the number of football coaches employed by the district. After seeing a classified advertisement for an assistant head coach for the upcoming season that would bring the coaching staff up to seven. The resident said nearby schools, such as Kiski Area –a Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) Quad-A school - only employs four coaches.
Apollo-Ridge will be a WPIAL single-A program this fall.
“That’s a lot of coaches for a single-A football program,” the resident said. “You have six there now – you could easily run that program with a head coach and a couple assistants on offense and defense.”
To add to the budget discusson, the resident also estimated paid coaches are overpaid by about $1,000 each.
“I don’t like to see money thrown around – in this day and age, in our own households we don’t throw money around like that. I’d like to see us do what other school districts are doing: really tightening the belt,” the resident said.
Other local taxpayers agreed, including Apollo resident Regina Liermann.
“Let’s face it – the athletic program is not academics, so why should I have to pay into that?,” Liermann asked.
Liermann proposed raising the extra money needed through academic registration fees.
Board President Greg Primm said directors have not determined the final outcome, but they have not come across the final numbers yet, either
“I think we’ve been pretty-responsible with taxes in the past few years, (and) I think the difficult part for me is we faced funding levels going back to 2007 and as a result of that, it has cut our revenue short. We’re still waiting to hear what the State’s going to give us next year,” Primm said.
Some budget cuts made last year included watching 13 teachers walk by attrition and a local library being closed: two hard choices that might be the first of many, according to Primm.
“We’ve already been through Round 1 of cuts last year. I think we made some tough decisions (but) I think those tough decisions are far-from-over,” Primm said. “I think what people forget are (school board directors) all pay taxes, too. It comes out of all of our pocketbooks.”
School directors will vote on the preliminary budget at Monday’s meeting inside the high school conference room. The final budget will be voted upon Thursday, June 28.
The June meeting date will take the place of the other regularly-scheduled June meetings. The meeting was changed to allow for a 30-day public review period to precede final adoption.
Superintendent Margaret DiNinno said an early June meeting usually allows for the school board to hire any teachers needed for the upcoming school year, but said she does not foresee that being the case for 2012-13.
A copy of the district’s budget is available on their website.
In other news, Primm and Board Vice-President Forrest Schultz have been meeting with Armstrong School District board leaders Joseph Close and Christopher Choncek regarding the possible South Bend Township secession.
However, Primm said South Bend parents have a lot of work to do – including a voter referendum and approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education -and said they will have further meetings to get updates.
“At this point, I think they have a lot to mull over. It’s not an easy task they are going to undertake,” Primm said.
May 29 is the last day of school for Apollo-Ridge seniors, with the last day for other students June 1.
Superintendent Margaret DiNinno discusses upcoming events to the end of the school calendar with some of the school directors at their committee meeting last night. After Board directors vote on the preliminary budget this Monday at 7:30PM, they will hear public comment before their final budget vote June 28.
Apollo-Ridge School District | jweaver May 22, 2012 | 
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