Every spring, the administrators and PTA members host an .
This year the focus will be on the district's budget.
Are you concerned about a potential tax increase? Do you have questions about the school budget process? If so, plan on attending the discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14 in the auditorium.
Superintendent Patrick O'Toole, Assistant Superintendent Sharon Suritsky and Business Manager Frosina Cordisco will be on hand to make a presentation and answer questions.
Questions should be submitted by emailing them to uscopenmike@gmail.com by Monday, March 12. Additional questions will be taken on Wednesday night, if time permits.
What questions do you hope to have answered on Wednesday night? Tell us in the comments.
I can't ask questions at the SB meeting becuase the SB won't answer the questions. They don't respond to questions and comments. You do a good job of defending the USCSD. why?
Who said anything about attacks? People should be able to ask tough questions and get honest answers. We the people don't have our questions answered at the SB meetings the SB doesn't respond to the people there. Oh just in case you don't know we are 2M budget deficit and projected even more for next year.
Who said you couldn't ask tough questions? I will be submitting a few myself. Who said YOU were attacking? I do think words like "clueless" and baseless accusations re scheduling and notice and three excalmation points seems melodramatic and immature to me, but I didn't say that in my original post. I am well aware of the deficit issues, not sure what indicated I wasn't aware of or concerned about. I just think histrionics and ad hominem attacks are counter-productive. As you are so informed, you must know that the overarching issues are teacher salary and unfunded pension liability. As a practical matter, there are very few cuts that can meaningfully affect the budget if these two issues aren't addressed at a state level. The unfunded pension issue started under Gov. Ridge, continued under Gov. Rendell and continues under Gov. Corbett. We need state legislation reforming how teacher pensions are funded and we need state legislation re economic furloughs (i.e., allowing districts to terminate teacher who are not performing when economics require teacher lay offs and abolishing FIFO for teacher hires and terminations.) Best of luck to you and safe travels on Wed. night.
If I made excuses like the ones you stated I'd be fired. This SB always points the finger elsewhere. They keep no accountability of themselves. These items have been around a long time and this board was well aware of these mentioned items. That's why they shouldn't have over spent on the middle school projects but they knew they had these ACT 1 exemptions in their pocket and the assessment increases so they could spend what they wanted for the middle schools. Good job standing up for them. Wed. meeting will be to explain away the tax increases with these excuses you mentioned. Why are other SD balancing the budget wo tax increases?
It's not an excuse, it's a fact. The unfunded pension liability and the state pension structure is simply not a sustainable system. Please quit reading beyond my words. I do not support increase in taxes beyond what the Act 1 limit. Please don't be naive, it is in the state's interest to approve the Act 1 exemption because that focuses attention locally, away from the Commonwealth. I am willing to bet the PDE almost never declines an Act 1 exemption application. I also agree that I would like to see the school district do much more to operate more efficiently before raising taxes. For instance, it is beyond me why we don't allow high school students participating in sports to count that as their gym class, thereby possibly eliminating one teacher position. I would also like the school district to develop an acceptable list of online courses, especially for summer school. Parents could pay for and children could meet requirements online, possibly also decreasing required number of teachers. Finally, my high school privatized busing, if you wanted to ride a bus, you paid for a bus pass from a private company and then provided the service. This worked fine and could save a huge amount of money. There are many more ideas that I would like the school district to try before raising taxes. My point is, let's have the hard discussions in a respectful manner.